


A Grimm Rose

by Sani2341



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Half Grimm Ruby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-03-13 00:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 72,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13558758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sani2341/pseuds/Sani2341
Summary: We all know Ruby Rose, a young girl with dark red hair and silver eyes, wearing a red cloak, the hood of which covers her wolf like ears and Grimm like face. What not the Ruby Rose you were thinking about? Well then read on and find out what else changes because Summer got thrown into a spawning pool while pregnant.





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> So this started of as a pair of short chapters over in the RWBY idea thread on Spcebattles, it is an Au where Ruby was born half beowulf because Summer took a bath in one of those spawning pools during her pregnancy.

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter One:  


  
Yang had wandered through the dark, snow covered Forest for most of today, pulling along a small cart containing her younger sister Ruby, covered in a red cloak and a pair of blankets.  
  
“Yang are we there yet?”  
  
Hearing her sister's question, the six year old blonde stops and turns around. When she saw that the 4 year old had drawn her cloak’s hood down over her face against the cold, Yang realized how cold and exhausted she was herself, but that wouldn’t stop her now.  
  
“Not yet but we should get there soon.”  
  
True to her word, they arrived at the location she found written on the back of an old picture of her dad’s team shortly after that. But what they found wasn't a lived in home where she could just ask her real mother to come back, or even an intact house. What they found was a long burnt down ruin, only barely resembling a two story house, most of it covered in snow due to the missing roof.  
  
This was when Yang realized what she had done, and what risks she had taken today. She had dragged her sister through a forest, probably filled with Grimm, hoping to find their way along the small game trail noted on the back of a picture. She hadn’t even left a note for her dad or uncle to find, let alone told them where she was taking her sister. All on the off chance that they could find her mom, a misplaced hope that started this whole fool’s errand.  
  
Crashing in with that realization, and the frustration it caused her, came all the sorrow she managed to hold back since Summer’s death, by hoping to finding her own mom. Yang couldn’t take it anymore and punched the fence in front of her, managing to do nothing but drive a few splinters from the remaining wood into her knuckles. Loud sobbing was heard as the six-year old fell to her knees and began crying. As always in their little family, she was soon hugged by her little sister from behind, little gloved hands barely managing to reach around the older siblings torso.  
  
But unlike at home her sister wasn’t the only being attracted by her sorrow, as evidenced by the snow crunching under heavy paws, heralding a Grimm’s approach. When Yang looked up, her lilac eyes were confronted with the sight of a pack of roughly half a dozen Beowulfs closing in on the siblings. While the older of the two kneeled there frozen by fear, the younger let go of her sister, threw her head back and let out a loud howl, while raising her tail as high as she managed with the heavy jacket she wore.  
  
When Ruby lowered her head again to stare the leading beowulf in the eyes, her hood had fallen of her head, revealing Canine ears covered in red fur dark enough to appear black, and a face covered by a white boneplate, nearly identical to that of the Beowulf her silver eyes were staring down, with the only difference being that the red marks on the girl’s face formed rose petals.  
  
The silent Staring contest went on for about a minute, but just as Yang decided to ask her little sister what was going on, the Beowulf in front of the Sisters lowered his head and rolled onto his back. Little Ruby running towards the big Grimm immediately after that only confused poor Yang even more.  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
Getting that youngling to stand down had taken way too long for Ruby’s taste, but now that was done, she ran over and began rubbing it’s belly. after Yang sat down on the cart, still giving off a bit of fear for her sister and her new pack to enjoy, she tarted up a game of tag with the other wolves. They grasped the concept quicker than the young girl had hoped and soon they started playing, although Ruby made sure to stay in Yangs field of vision.  
  
After they played for a while, Ruby felt her sister’s fear rise again, similar to how the older Sibling reacted when they first encountered the pack. As she looked towards her sister, an Ursa was already charging at the blonde, but just before it could reach her, it fell apart, split in half by the Scythe wielding Huntsman revealed behind it. Just as she was about to greet him, after all he was her uncle Qrow, he began moving towards one of the Beowulfs, his weapon ready to bisect them too.  
  
Unwilling to let him harm her new found playmates, she began running, hoping to intercept him before he reached one of the Grimm. As it started to appear like she wouldn’t make it, she suddenly found herself standing between her packmate and uncle, a few rose petals trailing after her. The Huntsman, surprised by her sudden appearance tried his best to divert his strike away, but didn’t manage to stop it entirely. His scythe carved a notch across her bone-covered face, from her right bro to below her left eye, and ripped open her left sleeve, leaving a small cut, not deep enough to draw blood. When the sleeve started to fall open, it revealed a line of fur and bony nubs along the outer right side of the girl's arm.  
  
“Ruby what-”  
  
He didn’t even finish his question before his niece interrupted him, looking at him with a hint of fear in her eyes.  
  
“Please don’t hurt them, we just played tag.”  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
When he found out that his nieces run away, without any note or anything Qrow was determined to find them before something bad happened to them, he rushed outside and looked for any sign to where they went. It wasn’t hard to actually track them, as the cart the sisters had taken with them left deep tracks in the snow. But what he saw when he found them caused him to fear for their lives. They were surrounded by six beowulf's, none of them older than a couple of years at the most but would still be strong enough to tear either of the siblings to pieces. Before he could begin taking care of those though, he would have to take care of the Ursa charging at Yang.  
  
A short sprint and a swing of his scythe later, the Ursa was dealt with, allowing him to begin work on the remaining Grimm. Although what happened next was so unexpected, not even his years of experience working as a Huntsman allowed him to react quick enough to avoid hurting Ruby. Just as he started his swing against the first Beowulf, his younger niece appeared before him with a burst of red rose petals, her eyes seemingly close to tears. He tried his best to deflect his overhead swing away from his niece, but his weapon’s momentum was against him. The Scythe’s blade tip ran over his niece's face and cut her sleeve.  
  
“Ruby what-” -are you doing, he wanted to ask, but the fearful look she gave him caused the words to stop in his throat before she began to talk.  
  
“Please don’t hurt them, we just played tag.”  
  
Of all the things he thought he might now hear from the Grimm-like girl, he hadn’t expected her to say something like that.  
  
“You sure they won’t hurt you girls kido?”  
  
“Uhu, after all they are my pack now” while saying that, she turned her head and growled at the beast behind her, which obediently walked next to her and laid down.  
  
“See, you can pet him if you want.”  
  
This confused him a bit more before he began to laugh lightly as if remembering an old joke.  
  
“Well okay then, but we need to return home girls, after all you don’t want to sleep out here in the cold tonight, do you?” Barely registering the calls of, “yes uncle Qrow” and “I don’t sleep” from Yang and Ruby respectively, the Huntsman pulled out his scroll and selected Taiyang in from his contact list and pressed the dial button. THe recipient of his call immediately picked up.  
  
 _“Qrow, did you find my girl, please tell me you found them.”_  
  
“Relax Tai, I found them, they are safe for now. But say, do you remember how Summer used to call Ruby ‘her little Alpha?”  
  
 _“Yes, why do you bring that up?”_  
  
“Well as it so happens your youngest just got a pack of Beowulf to listen to her like trained dogs.”  
  
 _“THIS IS NO TIME FOR JOKES QROW please just bring my girls home.”_  
  
“That’s no joke Tai, at this moment little Ruby has about six Beowulfs doing most of what she tells them. They don’t seem older than a year or two, so congratulations, Summers little bath in those spawning pits made your daughter Grimm enough that random Beowulfs accept her as their elder.”  
  
 _“Whatever Qrow, please just bring them home, I can’t deal with your stupid joke right now.”_  
  
At this his brother in law ended their call, which caused Qrow to turn towards the Girls who were busy petting the beasts around them.  
  
“Girls I just talked to your dad, and he wants us to come home as soon as we can.”  
  
At that the younger girl's ears dropped down a little while she turned towards her Uncle.  
  
“Aww really?”  
  
“Yes really Ruby, now come. If you really want to I’ll come back here with you so you can play with them again.”  
  
As there was no further response from her, he turned towards the cart and waited for the Girls to come to him, so they could start the long trek home. Yang came to his side as expected, but Ruby managed to shock him for a second time that day, when she came not on her own two feet, but holding onto the back of one of the Grimm as best as she could, growling what he presumed to be commands or directions into his ears.  
  
“Ruby, what are you doing” the her older sister asked.  
  
“I’m coming home with you duh.”  
  
“That’s not what she meant Kido, why are you riding that Beowulf?”  
  
“I don’t wanna walk, and Eins here can carry me.”  
  
Qrow was about to ask her to leave the Beast here, but then he thought about how Taiyang would react when he saw her coming home like this so instead he continued:  
  
“Well Ok then, but you stay at my side at all times got it?”  
  
“Uhu.”  
  
“Well then let’s go home.”  
  
With that last exchange finished, Qrow began leading the two Girls back home through the dark forest.  
  
~~~~~~~


	2. Chapter Secundum

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Secundum  


  
The interrogation room Ruby found herself in hadn’t changed since last time. Besides the table and the four chairs arrayed around it, the room was empty. Just as the wolf-eared girl was about to get bored twiddling her glove covered fingers, the door opened, allowing a middle aged police officer to enter the small grey room.  
  
He sat down and straightened his green tie before he started addressing the girl in front of him with a friendly tone.  
  
  
“Hello miss Rose, say is this the fourth or already the fifth time some deputy brought you here so I can question you about the White Fang?”  
  
“The fourth this month, but the fifth overall, Detective Viridian”  
  
“Well if it were up to me I would just send you home, but regulations say we have to do this again. So as last time I will start recording our conversation and start asking you some questions alright?”  
  
“Sure go ahead.”  
  
At that the policeman started the recording function on his scroll before he continued.  
  
“Good then would you please state your name, age, species, address and occupation please?”  
  
“Ruby Rose, 11 years old, Faunus, Oak-way 4 Patch, Student.”  
  
Ruby her right hand slightly under the table, she didn’t like lying to others, but claiming to be a Faunus was the easiest way to explain here ears, without telling people what she actually was.  
  
“You are here today because a pair of junior detectives suspected you of involvement in the White Fang because of the Mask you are wearing, is that correct so far?”  
  
“Yes “  
  
“Then let’s start with the obvious question, are you a Member of or involved with the White Fang?”  
  
“No officer, I am not part of those terrorists, and definitely not helping them despite this.”  
  
“Then why did you refuse to take of that mask when asked to do so?”  
  
Hearing this question, her ears lowered slightly, she was lucky they hadn’t tried to force the ‘mask’ of the face that wasn’t actually beneath it. Nonetheless she repeated the Story her Dad had given her to explain it in public:  
  
“Because it hides a set of ugly scars I got during one of the last peaceful protests, because someone decided the little girl in front of them needed to get activated burn dust thrown into her face for having a pair of extra ears.”  
  
“Well we won’t force you to take it off, don’t worry. But we noticed that your Aura has been unlocked since the last time you were here, would you tell me why?”  
  
“Because I started training to get into Signal a year early.”  
  
A short burst of Surprise washed over the detective’s face at that statement.  
  
“Why would a nice girl like you want to attend a Combat school. Let alone try to get in earlier than normal?”  
  
“Well, you see Yang, my big sis, and I promised us to always look out for each other. But if She starts at a Huntsman Academy before me, we won’t be on the same team and then how will we look out for each other if we are on different missions and-“  
  
As She started to ramble of, She was interrupted by the man in front of her, now even more surprised than before.  
  
“You are aware how dangerous the job of Huntsmen and huntresses is? Why do you want to join their ranks at all?”  
  
“Yes I am aware how dangerous it can be, after all my mom died on a mission. And if you really want to know, I want to help people, and show that a wolf isn’t always the evil beast described in the fairy tales.”  
  
“Have you considered working for the police instead? We too are there to help the people of Vale.”  
  
“Well, I haven’t really, but you see officer, but everyone else in my family is a Huntsmen or training to be a Huntress.”  
  
“Then one of them is training with you, I assume?”  
  
“Uhu, my uncle Qrow is going to show me how to use a scythe like he does, but he insisted that we start training my Aura first.”  
  
“A wise decision as far as I remember my training at Signal. Say your uncle Qrow, is his last name Branwen by any chance?”  
  
“Yeah it is, do you know my uncle?”  
  
“Yes I do, he sometimes help us track down criminals that try to escape the law by running into Grimm territories.”  
  
“Well if you want to catch up, he is coming to pick me up.”  
  
“Ah ok, I would have prefered your dad, because there is something I wanted to ask of you and I wanted to run it by your parent first.”  
  
“Why what do you want from me Officer? I thought I wasn’t in any trouble yet?”  
  
“No nothing like that. As the Memo and Poster I put up don’t seem to have helped with my colleagues recognizing that your mask is different than what the White Fang have been using and that you have already been confirmed as unconnected to them. So I would like to ask you to add my Number to your scroll and either call me or asked the officers who want to bring you in to ask me, before we have to repeat this a sixth time.”  
  
Ruby took out her Scroll and handed it to the Officer.  
  
“Okay, if you think that will help”  
  
“Good then how about we see if your Uncle is here, and if he is not, I think there are still some donuts left in the kitchen, you can have mine while you wait.”


	3. Chapter San

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter San  


  
Qrow stepped out the back door, carrying a pair of wooden staffs. He saw his niece in the backyard, standing in a meditative stance that was supposed to help novices figure out how to use their Aura to increase their strength. It was the application of Aura Ruby struggled the most in achieving, since they started training a couple of weeks ago.  
  
He waited with approaching her until she finished her current cycle of motions before taking the last step towards her and addressing her.  
  
“Hey Kiddo, enough with the meditating for now. I would like to start teaching you how to actually use a weapon.”  
  
The girl in front of him immediately took a more relaxed stance and took the staff he was holding out to her with a slightly puzzled expression.  
  
“Why did you bring Sticks uncle Qrow? You said you would show me how to use a Scythe like you do.”  
  
“I will don’t worry squirt. But for your first question, tell me what is a Scythe?”  
  
“It’s one of the deadliest and dangerous weapons used by Huntsmen.”  
  
“Well, that is correct, but not what I was going for. What part make up a Scythe?”  
  
“A Scythe consists of a curved blade, a pole and an attachment point that allows it to rotate from a position pointing away from the pole at a 90° angle to one where it sits inline with it like an old warscythe.”  
  
“Exactly so with this knowledge refreshed, why do you think I gave you a simple staff?”  
  
At this, the Grimm faced girl took a moment to think about her answer, but did not come to a solid conclusion.  
  
“I can’t come up with any reason, sorry.”  
  
“Well as Scythe is at it’s most basic nothing more than a stick with a fancy blade, many of the same basics apply to both staffs and Scythes, as well as polearms in general. As it is way less dangerous and less complicated to learn these basic techniques with a staff than an actual Scythe, we will be using these until we move on to more Scythe specific moves and strategies.  
  
Now the first thing I’m going to show you is a well-rounded basse stance. First you hold the staff with both hands roughly in the center third and hold it slightly diagonally in front of you, the forward end pointing at your opponent's face. Lastly you place your feet roughly shoulder width apart and slightly bent your knees.”  
  
He demonstrated each part in sequenz as he explained the stance. The veteran Huntsman had to correct his niece a few times, but eventually she managed to get the stance right, so he continued with the next part of his training.  
  
“So now that you have the way to stand down, we can move on to actual attacks and blocks. Not counting stabbing there are only seven directions an opponent's strike may come from. Straight from above, diagonally from above or below both either left or right, and straight from the side either from left or right again.”  
  
As he mentioned each direction, he performed a quick jab with one end of his staff, to help the wolf-eared girl in front of him understand what he means.  
  
“Now of course there are more ways to actually strike at an opponent with different weapons, but if you know how to correctly block strikes coming in these seven vectors, you can defend against most attacks against you, as they will pass through one of these giving you a chance to intercept their strike before it hits you. Now the most important part about any of the blocks I’m going to show you is that you apply an opposite force to your opponent's attack and not just get you weapon in the way of their strike. Now to block an attack from straight above the easiest is to just raise your weapon horizontally and push against the trike that is coming down.  
  
Against a diagonal strike you can just rotate your weapon against the strike from your base stance, which normally puts enough momentum behind the block to stop an attack.  
  
For a horizontal jab against you the quickest way to block it is to hold your staff vertically and turn against the strike at your hip. You got all of that kiddo?”  
  
“I think so.”  
  
“Good then first I’ll go ahead and throw strikes at you and you do your best to block them correctly.”  
  
Qrow then waited a moment for his niece to ready herself before he began. The Huntsman kept his strikes at a fraction of his normal speed so that the young trainee had a chance to keep up with him. He started the exercise of with a simple overhead strike, which Ruby managed to block correctly, although a bit later than would have been optimal. She also managed to block his left right combo, where he struck out with each end of his staff after the other, this time as quick as he had expected her to.  
  
But the first diagonal strike he placed, was intercepted but not stopped by his niece, as she just hold her weapon in the way instead of pushing against the strike assisted by a rotational momentum as he had explained earlier.  
  
But with his next strike against the wolf-eared girl it became obvious that she had realised her mistake, as she put enough force into her block to stop his strike from hitting her leg.  
  
This continued for a while longer, until Ruby had not made a mistake for nearly a dozen blocks.  
  
“Ok that is enough of that for now squirt, now we move on to a simple sparing, that will end when your aura breaks, or you land three hits on me.”  
  
Both of them took their base stance and then began to circle each other. It would be the younger of the two combatants who threw the first attack, drawing back her staff above her right shoulder, took a step forward and swung her weapon at her Uncle’s shoulder. He easily managed to block her strike and then, while still binding her weapon, used the lower end of his staff to strike at her exposed leg. As her uncle was holding back, the young girl barely managed to intercept that strike before it hit her.  
  
Their sparring match went on like this for a while longer, with Ruby only barely keeping up, until the two of them stood close enough that none of them could bring their staff far enough back for an effective strike. This stalemate was resolved though, when the young half-Grimm did something her teacher was not expecting. instead of trying to strike him with the little momentum she could gather, Ruby instead placed the lower end of her staff behind her uncle’s rear leg, before she rammed her bone-armored face into his gut. THis caused him to try and take a step back, at which point the young girl pulled back the end of her staff, tripping him over. As he landed on his behind, the girl’s wolf tail raised in anticipation, as she stepped forward to place the last two hits she needed to win their spar. Before he could reach him though, she stumbled over the weapon her Uncle had dropped, falling on top of him.  
  
“Congratulations on managing to surprise me like that kid. But that just means I’ll need to pull my punches a bit less than I did.”  
  
As her tail lowered back between her legs, Ruby only managed a short gulp, before her Uncle motioned for her to get back into her base stance.  
  
From this point onwards, she barely managed to block half the strikes her teacher threw her way, and thus her relatively untrained Aura soon gave out.  
  
“Well that was a productive first training session wasn’t it?”  
  
“Yes Uncle Qrow”  
  
To his surprise, his niece was exhausted , but not gasping for air as he had feared she might be at the end of their little spar.  
  
“Now then let’s get back in and see if we can help your dad with preparing dinner.”


	4. Chapter Quattro

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Quattro  


  
The night was chilly and, although she didn’t really mind the lower temperature, Ruby pulled her deep red cloak closed in front of her to ward of the wind. The young girl had just finished visiting her mother’s grave and was now going deeper into the forest. The snow crunched under her black boots, while the moon shed just enough light for the Grimm-girl to see everything a clear as normal humans would by day.  
  
She had to walk a while until he reached her destination, a decently big clearing, hidden in the deepest part of the forest, away from the few pathways humans had carved to traverse it. As Ruby reached the middle of the clearing, she threw her head back, and let loose a loud and somewhat commanding sounding howl, calling out to her pack.  
  
One by one the Beowulfs arrived, sometimes alone or as a pair, but mostly in small groups of three from between the trees. When all of them had arrived, the wolf-eared girl stood before slightly more than a dozen Grimm. The last Beowulf to arrive didn’t stop in front of her, but instead continued to charge at her, the short length of its spikes openly proclaiming the Grimm’s relative young age. Ruby quickly realized what was happening, as her own, barely an inch long, spikes were hidden beneath her clothes and she was smaller than all other members of the pack, the young ‘wulf thought it could take her leadership position away from her.  
  
But she hadn’t stayed leader of the largest Beowulf pack on patch for the last seven years without defending her position, so when she saw the other Grimm charging at her, the half Grimm lowered her stance slightly, ready to duck beneath her attackers first strike. When she did so, one of her hands reached up to grab its shoulder. Before the younger Grimm could realize what she was doing, Ruby used her remaining hand to push against her assailants Chest, applying the advantage in strength she had thanks to her higher age despite her looks, and flipped her opponent onto his back by simultaneously pulling down on its shoulder.  
  
As the young Beowulf’s back hit the ground, Ruby had already used her semblance to appear on its chest, pressing her claws into it throat, while she bit of an ear and spat it next to the grimms head. As both the rose petals she left behind, as well as the ripped of ear began to dissolve into nearly black red mist and black mist respectively, the alpha growled at the beaten foe beneath her and barked.  
  
**“[Yield or die]”**  
  
The young Grimm tried to escape her grasp, and despite nearly managing to push her away, in the end it had to accept its defeat. After all the times Ruby was forced to defend her position by force, she once again wondered how she had managed to take the position by staring down Eins all those years ago. As always she arrived at the came conclusion, namely that none of them had any idea what being an alpha actually meant or required at that time.  
  
Just as she finished that thought, every Grimm in the pack noticed the sweet aroma of fear coming from a pair of travelers traversing the forest. Luckily for the travelers, there weren’t many other Grimm on Patch thanks to the regular cullings performed by teachers and students of Signal, which Ruby’s pack only managed to avoid because she kept snatching the schedule for those from her Dad. But even so her pack and to a lesser extend the half Grimm herself had to feed on someone’s fear and similar negative emotions, so they began to move towards the part their prey was traveling on.  
  
When the couple wandering the forest actually arrived where the pack was waiting for them, Ruby had already sent out ‘wulfs to either side of the trail, keeping to the trees where human eyes wouldn’t be able to pick them out clearly. As the first Grimm saw the Humans they began to growl and step on fallen branches, causing the poor souls to snap around their gaze with every new sound, becoming filled with utter terror at what they feared might come out of the tree’s at any moment.  
  
But the beasts never charged actually came at them, because as Ruby had observed a few years ago, if they were seen or harmed somebody, a few days later there would be a team of Huntsmen and Huntresses tracking down the Grimm responsible. But as harming and killing Humans and Faunus were just the easiest way to generate fear and hatred to feed on, Ruby managed to train her pack to raise their preys fears without giving themselves away, causing the pack to suffer even fewer casualties than they did before.  
  
When every member had basked in the wanderers’ fear long enough to last them for the next few days, they let them go their not so merry way and moved back to the clearing they had met at earlier. As they arrived, some of the newer members growled in dissatisfaction, but were quickly silenced by the few Grimm remaining from the original pack of seven, after all many of them would have been hunted down already if it weren’t for their leader's way of sating their hunger, as evidenced by the ones that hadn’t listen before and were now gone forever.  
  
After waiting a bit longer at the clearing, Ruby decided that they would start prowling the forest, to find some humans on the paths further away from their hidden clearing. Despite them walking through the forest for some hours more, they did not encounter any more humans. But they did stumble across a small herd of sleeping deer, which Ruby stayed and watch for a moment, after all the scenery was surprisingly cute, and she was still a little girl who liked to watch cute things, at least half of her was.  
  
As the moon began to near the horizon, the young alpha parted ways with her pack, and headed back home to be with her more immediate family when they woke up. When Ruby arrived at the edge of the forest close to her home, she was intrigued by the salty frustration wafting her way from the shed in the garden. Anxious to see what was going on back there, she used her Semblance to arrive at the workshops door in a blink, where her canine ears picked up the quiet, frustrated muttering of her uncle. Deciding to see what was troubling him and hopefully cheer him up, Ruby brought her gloved hand up to knock before she opened the door.  
  
“Morning uncle Qrow, why are you up so early today?”  
  
She asked with a curious tone in her voice, causing the Huntsman before her to turn around to face her, giving her a glimpse at metal gears and wooden parts, that lay on the workbench.  
  
“Urgh, morning to you too kiddo. and well I woke up thinking I had a solution for how to make a wooden scythe to train you with but implementing it wasn’t met with any success yet.”  
  
After finishing this explanation, Qrow let out a deep yawn, but he had managed to catch the young half Grimm’s attention fully. After all she liked tinkering around with weapons as much as her dad and uncle would allow her, and helping work on something she would actually be allowed to use was a wonderful way to spent time for her.  
  
“Can I help you with that in anyway?”  
  
“Well I’ll have to leave for Signal in a few hours but let’s see how far we can get kiddo. First of all could you get me some coffee from the kitchen?”  
  
“Yes can do.”  
  
The enthusiastic young girl said before leaving a trail of soon dissolving rose petals trailing from the shed to the coffee maker in the kitchen.  
  



	5. Chapter Fünf

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Fünf  


  
Qrow was entering the backyard for another training Session with his niece, this time carrying four instead of the usual two wooden training weapons. He carried the additional ones, which had a length of wood protruding at an slight downward angle to imitate a scythe’s blade, because he had agreed to start showing Ruby techniques unique to scythes after their last sparring session.  
  
As he saw the aforementioned girl lying in the grass, enjoying the nice late spring afternoon, Qrow couldn’t help but muse about her progress in controlling her Aura, or, when it came to enhance her abilities with it, lack thereof. Despite what techniques he showed her, the little half Grimm never had managed to use her Aura for much besides shielding herself from harm and healing small wounds. She excelled at those practices, probably even surpassing a few of the first years he was teaching at Signal.  
  
But, as she was as strong and tough as a Grimm, quite literally, that should not be a big problem for when the young girl was going to apply for Signal’s advanced curriculum, which was normally reserved for older students who decided to pursue a career where they were expected to have trained at a Combat school later than the thirteen years which was when most students would apply to a combat school. Normally Ruby would barely be allowed to take the normal entry exam this summer when she was twelve, but Qrow hoped to be able to pull some strings before that time, because seeing how determined his niece was to go to beacon with her big sister, who was he to stand in her way.  
  
“Hey kiddo, you’ve been lazy long enough, it’s time for training.”  
  
Hearing her uncle’s voice, the wolf eared girl quickly leapt up into a standing position, padded of her leggings, skirt and long sleeve shirt.  
  
“What’s with those two things you brought besides our staffs?”  
  
At that question he took one of the scythe stand-ins and held it out for Ruby to examine.  
  
“Well they are the closest I could get to a Scythe for training, as I didn’t get the gears to turn the blade to work with wooden weapons. Because of that we’ll have to train the two states off a Scythe separately, at least until you made your own at Signal so we can train with actual weapons.”  
  
At the prospect of learning how to actually use the same weapon which he had used to save Yang from that Ursa all those years ago, Ruby’s silver eyes lit up with excitement.  
  
“Ok then can we start?”  
  
“Alright. so first I need to explain some things to you, and then we'll move on to actually practice what I will tell and show you now. First off most of these moves require you to be able to actually rip the Scythe’s blade through your enemies. Most good Scythe-users achieve this by incorporating a firearm into the weapon, so they can use it’s recoil to add more strength to the pulling motion used to cut through an enemy with the blade in its angled position. You should remember that when you start designing your own weapon.  
  
Now to actually get the blade hooked around an opponent to rip through them, there are …”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby was quite proud of herself, after all the twelve year old was among the few students applying for Signal’s advanced curriculum that had managed to get to the last of the entrance exams, in which their combat skills would be evaluated. Most of the other students kept glancing towards her uncomfortably, either because she was at least two years younger than anyone else here, or because of her ‘mask’.  
  
Currently all of them were waiting in a room set up for sparring practice, with a pair of weapon racks on the walls containing all kinds of wooden training weapons, probably used for teaching the first year students before they finished making their weapons. After a moment a young Woman came into the room, carrying a large scroll in her hands.  
  
“Hello everyone, I am Mrs. Purpura and I will be overseeing your combat exam. During this exam, each of you will take part in one one on one spar, using a weapon of your choice from those provided. Each of you will be graded based on your skill with your chosen weapon, the tactics you employ and how much Aura you have left at the end of the match.  
  
You will not necessarily fail the exam if you lose your match, which will happen when one of the following three things happen. One your Aura levels drops below 15%, after you surrender, or if I decide that you can’t continue the fight.”  
  
The instructor quickly tapped the screen of her scroll.  
  
“Now for our first match, Mr. Bims Graurute will fight against Ms. Ruby Rose.”  
  
Along with Ruby a boy with a gray wolf tail stepped towards the weapon racks. Both of them were wearing similar clothes, a pair of comfortable pants along with a longsleeved shirt. But where the Faunus’ were grey and dark green, the half Grimm’s were red and black and she was wearing a pair of black leather gloves. Arriving in front of the provided weapons, Ruby immediately grabbed a simple staff. Bims seemed to hesitate for a bit before he decided to take a one handed sword, which meant that the wolf eared girl would have the advantage in terms of reach.  
  
Both of them quickly took their position in the middle of the room, after which Mrs. Purpura quickly gave them the Signal to start. Ruby held her staff pointed towards her opponent’s face, waiting for him to make a move, her view fixed onto his face. Before Bims even started his strike, his gaze shifting and staying on her left leg told the half Grimm where his first attack would try to land. This showed her that he had less experience in fighting one on one than her, because not obviously looking at where she wanted to strike next was one of the first things Qrow taught her. She easily blocked the telegraphed attack with one end of her staff, before she used to other to hit Bims’ shoulder. As he wasn’t expecting such a thing and had his sword still locked with the other end of her weapon, Ruby’s attack connected, although the limited space to pull the weapon back meant the strike was weaker than she had hoped. After this first exchange of blows, Ruby took a short step back, out of her opponent’s reach and waited what he would do next.  
  
After a few moments where neither of them attacked, Ruby decided to take the initiative and pulled her staff back a bit before she aimed a strike at her opponent right side. Despite the older combatants awkward block, which only managed to slow the weapon instead of stopping it, her weapon still connected with quite more force than her earlier attack.  
  
Thus even her relatively inexperienced opponent realized he needed to get closer to the wolf eared girl, so her longer weapon would be in her own way. Not expecting her opponent to wisen up, Ruby got caught by surprise when Bims’ moved closer, grabbing onto her staff with his free hand in the process. When his sword contacted her side, the half Grimm realized that she had to do something to get her out of this situation.  
  
Doing something that the watching students might have thought foolish, she let go of her own weapon, and quickly grabbed onto his sword and the corresponding wrist. She used her smaller stature to duck under his arm behind his back, while simultaneously twisting his wrist to force him to let go of his sword. Her quick move ended with her holding his right arm behind his back, twisting his wrist strong enough to cause pain despite his aura. Ruby simultaneously pushed his other arm out in front of him, thanks to her Beowulf strength, to prevent him from hitting her with her own staff. When it became evident that Bims wasn’t strong enough to free himself from the girl’s hold Mrs. Purpura spoke up.  
  
“At this point I believe it evident that Mr. Graurute can’t fight on, which means that Ms. Rose has won the first match. And with the way you took it after being put in a disadvantaged position, I would like to welcome you to Signal academy.”


	6. Chapter Hexa

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Hexa  


  
The small bell above the door chimed as Ruby opened the door to From Dust till Dawn, her favourite dust shop. Hearing that soft sound, the old shopkeeper looked up from the register he was tending to see the young wolf eared girl enter his shop.  
  
“Hello miss Rose, may I ask if that outfit is new?”  
  
The clothes in question were a short black and red dress, worn under a belt holding a pair of magazine pouches, some loose bullets and black and red rectangular box on the back. Her legs were covered by black leggings which ended inside red laced, black boots. The outfit was completed by a pair of greaves made of blackened steel covering the half Grimm’s legs up to slightly over her knees, a pair of dark red leather gloves and the same red cloak she always wore.  
  
“It is, my Dad took me and my Sister shopping for ‘real Huntress outfits’ when we received our letters of acceptance into Beacon. Although it did take us most of the day to find a tailor that could add a tail hole to my new dress. Anyways, I’m here to check if my orders arrived by now?”  
  
“Well congratulations miss Rose, and yes they did, the magazines are in the back if you want to read them now, I could load your empty ones with the Dust rounds you ordered.”  
  
“Sounds good, thank you.” Ruby said while pulling out four magazines, two from each pouch, and placed them on the counter before heading further into the shop.  
  
When she reached the stand containing among others the magazine's she had ordered and or waited for, Ruby put on the headset hanging around her neck so she could listen to some music while browsing through the magazines she was going to buy.  
  
While flipping through the pages of Weapons Weekly, the half Grimm thought back to the three years at Signal that were behind her. While most of the classes were not as easy as she had hoped, she had managed to keep up, mostly because of uncle Qrow’s and Yang’s help, and the fact that she didn’t need to sleep thanks to her Grimm nature. Even so she hadn’t made one friend there besides Yang, most other students either keeping their distance from her because of the Beowulf ‘mask’ that was her face, or the fact that she was a few years younger than most of her classmates. Her wolf like ears and tail also made her a target for many racist comments and insults, which she mostly ignored, except for the delicious anger and hatred that came with them, which made for nice snacks. Luckily with her dad and uncle both working as teachers at signal, no one tried to do anything to her besides that. All in all, Ruby was glad that Beacon meant a fresh start for her and that this time she would at least have her sister sitting in the same classes as her.  
  
As Yang had promised to pick her up and give her a ride home, the now 15 year old girl took her time in reading through her magazines. Just as she had finished reading the second magazine,the latest Destructively Dusty, her fur covered ears picked up the sound of the doorbell for the first time since she had entered the shop. Her interest waked, Ruby perked that pair of ears up in order to listen what was happening at the counter, after all only very few customers had come in the few times she had been here this late.  
  
  
“Do you know how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?”  
  
“Please just take my Lien and leave.”  
  
  
As she realized what this exchange most likely meant, Ruby pulled up her cloak's hood and flipped down the microphone of her headset, while she dialed officer Viridian’s number with the scroll in her other hand. She held her breath while she waited for the policeman on the other end to pick up the call.  
  
“Hello miss Rose, you are aware how late it is?”  
  
“Yes, but the Shop I’m at is being robbed right now.” Ruby answered, her voice as quiet as she could make it while still being picked up by her mic.  
  
“Wait, where are you right now?” The officer’s voice suddenly sounding fully awake and alert.  
  
“I’m inside From Dust till Dawn, at the back of the shop currently out of sight from the counter I hope.”  
  
“Ok, stay there and try not to draw attention to yourself. But if they do find you, try to move the fight outside and keep the property damage as low as you can.”  
  
During this last reply, Ruby heard footsteps approaching her from behind.  
  
“Hey you, hands in the air where I can see them!”  
  
“And try to stay at the shop until we arrive, so -”  
  
The person behind her grabbed her shoulder to turn her around before addressing the girl.  
  
“Hey I said hands in t-”  
  
His exclamation was interrupted by a powerful punch into his gut, which was quickly followed up by a kick that sent him flying back towards the front of the shop.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Roman was quite pleased with the way his evening had turned out so far. First he had managed to get Junior to offer him a discount when he hired the thugs now assisting him. THen, despite what he had told the old man behind the counter, the first Dust shop he came across after leaving Junior’s club was still open.  
  
But then one of his men came flying back to where the rest of them were gathering up Dust. He quickly signaled another of the henchmen to check out what happened back there, before the redheaded thief went back to loading burn Dust crystals into a small black box he was carrying. A few seconds later, a black and red blur flew past him and crashed through one of the front windows.  
  
When Roman turned around and looked outside, he saw another of Junior’s men lying seemingly unconscious on the street, with a black and red clad Faunus standing over him. While the girl took a rectangular, black and red Object from behind her back, which unfolded into an approximation of a simple quarterstaff with one half being octagonal while the other seemed round, the criminal mastermind assumed her to be a member of the White fang because of the Grimm mask she wore. He quickly banished that notion however, as her mask was to elaborate for a simple grunt, and he would have been informed if someone higher up the ladder were to visit Vale.  
  
Noticing that the rest of his hired help were just standing around, he let out a deep sigh.  
  
“What are you waiting for? Get her before she calls the police.”  
  
At that command, the three remaining thugs moved outside and did their best to surround the wolf tailed Faunus. The young girl didn’t waste much time and charged at the first man, before he even got into position, hitting him over the head with the angular half of her weapon. As that strike did not break the thugs Aura, he quickly stroke at her with his sword, which the girl managed to parry easily before she pressed a small button near the center of her staff, firing a bullet from the forward end of her staff.  
  
The bullet hit the man in front of her, tearing through the last of his aura, the backlash of which knocked him out. But what really surprised Roma, was that she used the recoil of the shot to simultaneously thrust the other end of her staff into the chest of the thug coming at her from behind. After a short stepped to the side the man still continued his advance, but when he came close enough to reach her with his blade, she suddenly jumped up quicker than should have been possible, followed by a trail of rose petals. While she was above him, barely out of reach, the Faunus performed a quick backflip as she came down behind him. Using the momentum generated by this acrobatic move, she brought up her left leg between his own pair, and as her metal covered shin connected with his groin, he toppled over in pain.  
  
But when the girl turned around to face the last of his men, the thug was already mid strike. She barely brought her staff up in time to block the man’S sword, the short distance between them turning the long weapon into a disadvantage. Obviously the little wolf realized this as well, taking one hand of her staff and pulling a combat knife literally out of her sleeve. As Roman could already hear sirens approaching, he decided to cut his loses and get himself to safety. As a lst present to the annoying little girl, he pulled one of the uncut crystals out of the box he carried, imbued it with some of his Aura to activate it, before he threw it towards the two combatants. As he ran into the nearest alley, the last thing he noticed from in front of the store was the explosion the crystal eh threw had caused.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby was in a familiar interrogation room, although the person with her wasn’t familiar to her at all. The woman walking in front of her was wearing a white blouse under a black corset, along with a violet cape and black skirt. Her green eyes gazed into the half Grimm’s silver ones as she began to talk to her.  
  
“Young lady, do you know what could have happened if I had not arrived in time to protect you from that explosion? Or better question what do you think you were doing taking on armed criminals on your own?”  
  
Ruby fidgeted in her seat under the blond woman's stern look before she carefully answered.  
  
“Well I just tried my best to follow the instructions officer Viridian gave me as best as I could.”  
  
This reply caused the older woman to stop, clearly surprised, before she resumed both walking and talking to the girl sitting before her.  
  
“Even so what you did was very dangerous. If it were me I would congratulate you on your luck to come out of this unscathed and send you back home.”  
  
As the blonde in front of her was about to continue, Ruby could hear steps approaching the door to the room.  
  
“But there is someone else here who wants to talk to you.”  
  
As if on cue, the door opened and a grey haired man clad in a dark green suit entered the room, his eyes behind pair of green tinted glasses. When he reached the table the young girl sat at, he placed the plate of cookies he had been carrying in front of her before he took the large black scroll the blond woman hold out to him while sitting down.  
  
“Ruby Rose, you are wearing a very intricate Beowulf mask. would you mind telling me why?”  
  
“It covers some nasty old scars I got years ago during an escalating Faunus rights demonstration.”  
  
“Would you mind taking the mask of and showing them to us?”  
  
“Yes, after all I don’t even take it off in front of my family.”  
  
“Well if you don’t want to that’s fine.”  
  
He quickly selected the security footage taken from the fight earlier tonight and started to play it on his Scroll, holding it so all persons in the room could get a clear look.  
  
“Tell me, why is a girl that got accepted into Beacon two years early because of a letter of recommendation and her early graduation from Signal, both of which praise her skill with a Scythe, using what looks like a simple staff to fight against armed robbers?”  
  
“Well you see it’s actually very hard to ‘pull your punches’ with a Scythe, so if they had been weaker than I thought, I could have ripped of arms or crushed bones accidentally if I had used a Scythe.”  
  
“That is very thoughtful of you, but it does raise the question of how you got that good with two weapons in the same time other students may not even gain such proficiency with only one weapon.”  
  
“That’s easy, see a Scythe is nothing more than a staff with a blade, so much of the training I did for using a Scythe translates over pretty easily. That is also why I decided to include a staff like form when I crafted Crescent Rose at Signal.”  
  
“Well then remember the airship to beacon leaves tomorrow at noon, I for one suggest you go home and get some sleep before then.”


	7. Chapter Sept

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter sept

 

_‘Can this day get any worse?’_ Ruby thought to herself.

It had actually started pretty good, when the half Grimm’s sister and dad had woken up, they had a nice breakfast, Taiyang frying bacon and scrambled eggs while Yang and Ruby made pancakes. The Rose-Xiao Long family took their time enjoying the meal, as it would be the last time they would sit down and eat together at home for a while.

After they finished their meal, Yang drove her motorcycle to the ferry, as she was going ahead to store it in a small Garage she had rented in Vale. Meanwhile the rest of her family was loading the girls bags into Taiyang’s truck, when they had finished Ruby gave Zwei, her father’s dog a last scratch to say goodbye and then they too were of towards Vale.

The three of them met at the airship dock where the girl’s ride to Beacon was waiting. They quickly loaded the backs onto the airship before they said their farewells. soon the girls were on their way towards Beacon, while Taiyang made his way back towards Patch.

When their transport reached cruising altitude was when things began to go downhill. A tall, blonde Boy nearby didn’t seem to take to well to the flight and soon puked near the two girls. Proving that enhanced senses aren’t always an advantage, Ruby’s breakfast nearly joined the boy’s, before she pinched her nose to block out the disgusting smell. Even so she didn’t dare to take more than shallow breaths.

When they arrived at beacon, Ruby quickly took a deep breath. enjoying the fact she could breath freely again without fear of vomiting. As she was enjoying seeing all the different weapons the students were carrying, Yang told her that she would spend sometime with a group of people she had claimed were friends from Signal, and quickly ran off, leaving her little sister alone so she could ‘make some friends’.

And just now, her very first step after collecting herself had caused her to trip into another student's luggage.

“Watch where you are going!”,the other student yelled at her, before she had even the time to look up, let alone stand up.

“Do you even know what damage you could have caused? These suitcases contain pure, refined Dust.”

“I’m really sorry” Ruby replied, doing her best to not yell back at the other girl, her ears flattened on her head, while her tail began to twitch from sideways.

“Well I sure hope you are not an animal aft-”, the white haired girl in front of her began, but abruptly stopped after Ruby got up and looked at her. Before she could ask what was wrong now, the wolf eared girl found herself encased in ice up to her shoulders with a rapier pointed at her face by the other student.

“Now you are either one of the best actors I have seen, or just the clumsiest assassin the White Fang has in their ranks. If there ever is a next time, take of your mask, it makes it quite easy to identify you as one of those terrorists.”

Ruby could taste the girl's anger and hatred that had suddenly flared up when she saw the half Grimm’s face. To her surprise, the same feelings popped up from another person approaching from the side if her guess was correct. When she turned her head to see the approaching person, she was greeted with the sight of a girl with long black hair ,hold back by a bow, and yellow eyes, wearing a mostly black and white outfit. Until the girl reached them, Ruby was confused, as she could have sworn the girls bow was twitching slightly, but when the girl arrived, her slightly cat-like scent betrayed her as a Faunus.

 

~~~~~~

 

When Blake stepped out of the airship, she still struggled to believe she got accepted into Beacon despite her rather recent history in the White Fang. When it became painfully obvious to her that the organization stopped caring about innocent Bystanders, she decided to sever her ties with them and had applied to the Huntsman academy to use her skills to help people and maybe redeem herself in her own eyes for what she had done, mostly fueled by old rumors turned into propaganda. To her Dismay the first thing she noticed was a poor wolf-eared girl covered up to her shoulders with ice, which made it nearly impossible to make anything out about the girl's appearance below her shoulders.

What she could see caused Blake to stop for a moment, as her face was covered in a Grimm-mask. She was about to turn around and leave the presumed terrorist to her fate, when she realized that the mask was to well made for most members of the White Fang, and the few that would wear such a finely made mask weren’t supposed to be near Vale based on what intel she remembered. While she approached the girl, she noticed two things, first her mask had the redlines forming Rose Petals, something she would have heard of if anyone in the Fang had on their mask. The second was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company holding a sword into the poor Faunus’ face.

‘Of course a Schnee would attack a Faunus’, the bow wearing Faunus mused, and when she heard the accusations thrown at her fellow Faunus, she decided to intervene sooner rather than later. As she heard the human starting to talk again, the cat Faunus tried her best to keep her voice calm despite her fury.

“Before you continue miss Schnee may I point something out?”, not waiting for a reply from the heiress Blake continued,

“The mask Miss-”

“Rose, Ruby Rose”, the other Faunus supplied readily,

“Miss Rose is wearing does obviously look nothing like the simplified ones the White Fang is wearing. And even if she was wearing one of their masks, you would still be charged with assault based on what I saw of your interaction.”

That little speech got the heiress attention, who unsure what to make of it, lowered her weapon for now before she addressed the new comer.

“But if she isn’t a part of the White Fang, why would she wear such a mask?”

“Well it could be a trophy, or maybe she is from a tribe where it is tradition to wear them as Huntress or-”

“I wear it to hide some very embarrassing scars.”

Hearing that answer reminded Blake of an old rumor from when the White Fang was still peacefully protesting, about a girl getting her face badly burned by a racist, but she let it go for now when she continued the conversation.

“Well if that is the case, I am sure both of you can agree that this was just a misunderstanding and that Miss Rose won’t go to the police if you help free her of this ice.”

The heiress replied to this suggestion by pulling out a small vial of burn Dust, which she used to melt the ice quickly. Immediately afterwards she turned around and walked of, leaving her bags to be carried after her by a pair of servants.

At the same time, Balke saw the other Faunus clearly for the first time, ‘That is a tail she is the burned Faunus’ blake thought as she noticed the wolf like tail swishing back and forth behind the other Faunus girl. Confused and unsure how to deal with this revelation, Blake wandered of, wondering why Ruby didn’t even twitch when the ice around her had been sprinkled with the same Dust that gave her the scars she was hiding if the rumors were true.

 

~~~~~~

 

As she finally arrived in the assembly hall with Jaune, Ruby was soon greeted by her sister, who had saved her a space in the center of the assembled students. Leaving her new friend behind she moved next to her sister, who immediately started talking to her.

“Hey sis, hows your day been so far?”

“You mean after you ditched me? I was frozen in place.”

“I didn’t know you were that nervous about meeting new people.”

“No I got encased in ice by a girl claiming I was an assassin for the White Fang after I tripped over her suitcases.”

Weiss Schnee had chosen exactly that moment to approach the wolf eared girl to actually apologize.

“Hello Miss Rose, if you are willing to forgive my rash actions earlier, I will overlook that you crashed into my luggage and we all can pretend none of that had ever happened.”

As Yang heard this attempt to apologize, she put one and one together and got ready to punch the girl in the white dress through the next best wall.

“Is that the girl that attacked you earlier Ruby?” She asked to confirm her suspicions.

The younger of the two sisters quickly interposed herself between Weiss and Yang and addressed her sister.

“Yes but as she said, let’s just forget that incident happened at all and start with a blank slate.”

When Yang heard her sister’s words, she returned to a more relaxed pose, holding out her hand for Weiss to shake instead.

“Well if you say so Rubes, Hi I’m Yang, Ruby’s older sister.”

Weiss gave the offered hand a firm shake while she replied.

“Weiss Schnee, nice to meet the both of you. Now if you two would excuse me, I think the speech is about to begin.”

And with that she left the two sisters, while the Headmaster appeared on stage.

 

~~~~~~

 

Blake was leaning against the wall in the ballroom, a small candle holder standing next to her while she held one of the books she had brought with her to Beacon before her. She only pretended to read it as doing so caused most other students to leave her alone with her thoughts. Thus she was free to think about Ruby, a Faunus with both wolf ears and a tail while she hid her scared face behind a Grimm mask, just like the Burned Faunus was rumored to be. The girl with the red cloak had even admitted that she wore the mask to hide scars, but what confused her was that she hadn’t shown a reaction to the burn Dust, so her scars might have a different origin after all.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed two girls approaching her. One was a rather well endowed Blonde wearing a tank top along with some shorts. THe other was her fellow Faunus she had just been thinking about, clad in a long sleeved pajama, her hands covered with gloves, just as they had been when they first met. Before she could ask them what they wanted, the unknown girl spoke up.

“Hi, I wanted to thank you for standing up for my little sister earlier. I’m Yang and you already know Ruby, would you mind telling us your name as well?”

“No I don’t, my name is Blake and I was actually thinking back to what happened back there just now. I know this is a very sensitive topic, but Ruby would you be willing to tell me how you got those scars you hide?”

“Well by now if told this story often enough so no I don’t mind. About 5 years ago now I think, I attended one of the last peaceful protests the White Fang had organized, but then some racist decided my face would look better if he rubbed it with burn Dust, which he ignited as soon as he pulled his hand from my face. But why did you ask that?”

“So you are the Burned Faunus.”

Ignoring the question posed by the younger Faunus, Blake spoke her now confirmed suspicion out loud, surprised that the rumor that inspired her to stay with the increasingly violent White Fang was actually true.

“I’m supposed to be the what now?” the youngest of the three asked, her head slightly tilted to the side in confusion.

“You see a few years ago there was a rumor making the rounds amongst the Faunus in my home village, about a little Wolf Faunus, which was claimed to have both animal ears and a tail, about ten years old who had gotten horribly burned by a racist after an otherwise peaceful protest for Faunus rights. It also said that from then on she wore a Grimm like mask to hide her scars, which, according to some of those Faunus, influenced the White Fang's decision to wear Grimm masks to hide their identities while they fight for their cause.”

While the younger sister seemed to shocked to response, the mask making reading her mimik impossible, the older one asked Blake a rather obvious question.

“And how do you know what rumors the Faunus talk about?”

“Where I grew up, Faunus actually were in the majority, so most RUmors they talked about would soon reach the few humans living among them.”

Yang did not seem quite satisfied with that answer, but before she could inquire further Ruby spoke up.

“Yang would you mind if I talked to Blake alone for a moment?”

“Not really, I’ll head back to our sleeping bag for now.”

Yang told her sister as she turned to leave the other two girls. Before Blake could ask Ruby what she wanted to talk about, the younger girl leaned down towards her bow and spoke in a whisper her cat ears could barely hear through the bow’s fabric.

“Why do you hide that you’re a Faunus?”

understanding how the other girl wanted to minimize the risk of being overheard, the Cat Faunus lowered her voice as well when she replied.

“Ruby you of all Faunus should know how horrible humans can be towards us. I just want to be left in peace.”

“Well then I won’t tell anyone about your secret, but I believe we are both here to help make the world a little brighter for everyone. If we hide what we are wouldn’t that mean that most humans only notice the Faunus of the White Fang, not those like us who want to help people? After all i don’t want that all Faunus are seen as the big bad wolf. Anyway good night Blake.”

With those words, the wolf eared girl took her leave to rejoin her sister. Following her with her eyes, Blake saw the other girl sit down next to her Sister, where she pulled out a small paperback book and started to read. Blake thought hard about what the girl had said and fully agreed with her point of view, after all if the Humans only see the White Fang on the news, they will never know about the Faunus like Ruby who want to help everyone. Even so the cat Faunus was unwilling to reveal what she was, fearing recognition as a former member of the White Fang.

An hour later, most other students were already sleeping, so blake laid down to sleep herself, but before she closed her eyes, she gave one last look towards the two sisters he had talked to earlier. While Yang was fast asleep, Ruby was still reading her book, probably without problem thanks to the very good night vision she likely shared with Blake.


	8. Chapter Oito

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Oito  


  
After she spent the whole night reading to prevent herself waking up anyone else accidentally, Ruby was on her way to the lockers alongside her sister. Once there, they retrieved their weapons for the upcoming initiation.  
  
“You seem to be way more relaxed this morning, what happened to cause that?”  
  
As the half Grimm put her weapon in its resting position she gave it one last pat before she replied to Yang.  
  
“How could I not be? After all today won’t be filled with me talking to strangers. Today my skills can speak for themself.”, she replied a small smile gracing her lips.  
  
“And what about your new teammates? I heard the assignment of teams is happening today as well.”, the elder sister continued, a woried frown on her face.  
  
“Why did you even ask that? I’m going to be on the same team as you, so you can do the talking. I mean I did work day and night for the last few years so I could attend beacon with you.” At this the smile vanished from her face, replaced by a more neutral expresion.  
  
“Well I just worry about you Sis, you shouldn’t rely on me so much. You didn’t make even one friend in your time at Signal, it’s time to change that.”  
  
“I did not, but why would I need friends if I can just hang out with you or-”  
  
before she continued, Ruby looked around to see that they were surrounded by other students getting ready for the day.  
  
“- in the forest.”  
  
When Yang just sighed in surrender, the siblings finished their preparations in silence and soon made their way to the cliff for initiation. Once they reached the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest, they were greeted by Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, both of them holding larger than normal scrolls.  
  
  
“Most of you have spent years training to fight, some may even have experience from real fights, and today all of that will be tested in the Emerald Forest you can see below.”  
  
With the short introduction form Ozpin finished, Glynda stepped forward to address the students.  
  
“Now as some of you already know, we will be assigning teams today. First, you will form a pair with the student you first make eye contact with in the forest. After Initiation is over, we will form teams of four consisting of two pairs each based on the results of this Initiation.”  
  
Giving the word back to the Headmaster, Ozpin spoke up.  
  
“Now if everyone of you would step onto one of these platforms, I will explain your task.”  
  
Waiting until everyone took their places, he continued.  
  
“Soon you will enter the forest using a landing strategy of your choosing. Once you have found a partner, your objective is to find the ruins in the forest, take one of the relics displayed there and then return here. We will be staying here, observing your progress through cameras set up throughout the forest. While inside the forest, don’t hesitate to kill whatever stands in your way, or you may die. Good luck.”  
  
With those words, the platforms the students were standing on launched them towards the forest one by one.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ozpin had his attention fixed on his scroll, where he was currently observing the students on their track through the forest. By now all students had found a partner and most were making their way towards the ruins. going through different video feeds, one caused him to stop switching from one to another, as it showed Weiss Schnee, on her own getting slowly surrounded by Beowulfs. This confused and intrigued the Headmaster, as the Heiress had partnered up with Ruby Rose shortly after both of them landed and, from what he had seen, were moving through the forest together.  
  
Wondering where Ruby was in that encounter caused him to think back to another unanswered question he hd about her. After all if a small Faunus girl was burned so badly that she needed to wear a mask, surely he would have heard of it. Additionally, as far as he was aware, neither Summer Rose nor Taiyang were Faunus as far as he was aware. Another curious thing about the young huntress in training had been her weapons non-lethal option.  
  
He pushed all those thoughts back aside, he refocused his attention onto miss Schnee, who was taking a long time to get ready to strike the Beowulf in front of her, seemingly trying for the perfect attack instead of dealing a deadly enough blow like many other students would have.  
  
Just as she finally seemed ready to strike, her wolf eared partner ran her over and slammed her weapon into the Grimm’s head. As the Beowulf fell down unconscious, Ruby took a look around at all the remaining wolf like creatures, which shortly afterwards began retreading, one grabbing the paw of the downed Grimm and dragging it along.  
  
Making sure he had just seen that right, he replayed the last few moments of footage. What he saw caused him to type out and send a short message to one of his allies asking for contact at the earliest convenience. This was as he had not seen anything to give the Beowulfs reason to withdraw, but he had noticed that the young Grimm faced girl had used her weapons staff form which she herself had claimed she only used when she didn’t want to risk injuring her opponent. Which raised the question why would a young Faunus or human want to spare a Creature of Grimm?  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby was sitting on the forest floor while Weiss was walking in circles around her, hoping to find a clue as to what way they needed to go. This may have been easier if Ruby remembered which way they ran after they met the Beowulfs, but, instead of paying attention where the slightly angered heiress had led her, the half Grimm had worried about the now ex-alpha she had hit over the head.  
  
‘Oh I hope the headache won’t be too bad when he wakes up. I did howl out my challenge so he should have prepared himself, right? OH no, what if I caused a concussion?’  
  
Those and similar thoughts had been circling around in her mind, that is until her partner had stopped in this small clearing. Ruby had realized at that point that Weiss hadn’t had any idea where she was leading them, as she probably just wanted to get away from the pack, which caused their current orientation problem.  
  
The younger of the two was just about to suggest that they find the Nevermore, which had left a few of his feathers around this clearing, and then take a ride on it to get to the ruins faster, when her canine ears picked up a faint scream of terror.  
  
If she were to only have this short acoustic input, she would be hard pressed to give more than a general direction of the poor, frightened girl. Luckily for the two of them and, if they made it in time, the source of the scream, the frightened student was a bountiful wellspring of fear Ruby could easily track down. She sprung up from her sitting position on the ground, grabbed Weiss’ arm and began to rush into the direction of fear, dragging her partner along.  
  
“Weiss quick, this way!”  
  
“And how do you suddenly know where the ruins are?”  
  
The heiress asked, her frustrations spilling into her voice, while she tried her best to free her arm from Ruby’s grip.  
  
“I don’t, but I heard someone scream over this way, they probably are in danger so we need to help them.”  
  
As she heard this response, the white haired girl began to run after her partner more willingly.  
  
“Okay, but please could you let go of my arm?”  
  
“Sorry”, Ruby quickly replied before releasing Weiss’ arm.  
  
From then on they set a quick pace towards the source of the fear the half Grimm was tasting. They soon arrived in a clearing, bigger than the one they had rested in, at the center of which stood the ruins they had been trying to find, there she could also make out Yang and Blake. Shortly after they arrived, Jaune came flying out of the forest, revealing himself to be the source of fear Ruby had been following. On the other side of the clearing, a redheaded girl was leaving the forest on Ursa-back, her mount quickly fell over dead as she arrived, it’s corpse beginning to evaporate.  
  
Ruby herself ran towards her sister, tackling her into a hug to greet her. When she arrived, she noticed the pairs of identical chess pieces sitting on stone pedestals. taking a step back, she took a look at her sister's hands, one of which still held a white knight piece. Hoping that the pieces played a part in team assignments, the half Grimm stepped up to the pedestal holding the remaining white knight, to increase her chances of being teamed up with her sister.  
  
Just as Ruby had grabbed the piece and stored it away, another redheaded girl entered the clearing, this one followed by a Deathstalker. When the wolf eared girl saw the other Grimm getting ready to sink its stinger into the armor clad girl in front of him, Ruby activated her Semblance to rush over there, and barely managed to block the Deathstalkers attack with her Scythe. Instead of pulling his stinger back for another strike, as she had hoped, being deprived of its prey riled the other Grimm up enough that it pressed its attack against it’s half blooded kin, pushing on with its natural weapon. It was about to imbed its stinger in Ruby’s Aura, when Weiss came to her partner's rescue, encasing the beast's tail in a wall of ice, similar to what she had done to Ruby the day before.  
  
“Please next time give me some warning before you attempt something like this, I don’t like having to save my teammates at the very last second.”  
  
“I’ll try my best.”  
  
When the red and white pair began to walk towards the rest of the gathered students, a giant Nevermore circled over head and noticed the heightened emotions of the gathered Humans.  
  
Taking it’s chance, it attacked the teenagers with a volley of its feathers before they saw it coming.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Later in the evening, Ozpin was still sitting in his office, despite the fact that he had finished all his work for the day. At the moment he was rewatching the footage of the fight between the Teams RWBY and JNPR and a giant Nevermore and a Deathstalker.  
  
At first the fight had been rather chaotic, as each of the eight students just tried to do the best they could on their own. After a moment or two though, Ruby Rose took charge of the fight against the Nevermore, barking out orders to the students who would soon join her on Team RWBY.  
  
Shortly after that, Jaune Arc started to give out advice towards the remaining three students, so they could fight the Deathstalker more effectively. While his orders came with much less certainty than those the wolf eared girl gave, they still were mostly based on good ideas and quick thinking, which soon left the Deathstalker Impaled by its own cut off stinger, and convinced the headmaster that mister Arc would be a good choice for team leader.  
  
During this, the Nevermore had been forced to ground for a moment by Yang Xiao Long’s relentless attacks, where a quick application of ice Dust by miss Schnee had it pinned in place. What followed was something the professor though was rather reckless but had proofed effective, Blake Belladonna and miss Xiao Long had used the former's chain scythe and a pair of stone pillars to form an improvised slingshot, which was quickly loaded with the team’s leader held in place by a Glyph. After a moment to aim, Ruby was launched at the Nevermore, whose neck she hooked her Scythe’s blade around, before she ran up the cliff, assisted by her partners glyphs once again, cutting deep into the Grimm, before the head finally came off just as she reached the top of the cliff.  
  
What increased his desire to speak to the contact he had messaged earlier was the pose the young girl held atop the cliff. Where one would expect a student, who had just decapitated a Nevermore to stand tall in their triumph, the young ‘Faunus’ stood with her head hung low, as if she was saddened about the Grimm’s demise.  
  
Just as he was going to turn of the scroll he had been using for this, he noticed a red blur zoom across one of the live feeds from the emerald forest. going through the cameras they had yet to take down again, he soon found one depicting a familiar girl in a red cloak, a pair of animal ears holding up its hood while a wolf tail was seen once or twice swishing out beneath it. He decided to follow her movements through the forest, as they could very well give him another point of data to confirm his hypothesis about the young, probably not Faunus, girl.  
  
When the girl stopped in front of a pack of Beowulfs, the headmaster got ready to wake up Glynda and Bartholomew, to rescue the girl if he was wrong. When the Grimm did not attack the girl, and instead laid down before her in submission, he saw his theory proven true, he now just needed to wait for Qrow to call him to confirm everything with him.  
  
Soon his privat scroll rang, the caller ID belonging to the man he had wanted to talk to since the Initiation ended.  
  
 _“What is so damn important that I need to call you back as soon as I can Oz?”_  
  
“Well Mr. Branwen I believe there is something you should have told me about your niece during the past 15 years.”  
  
 _“Realy?"_ , Qrow asked, _"Now how did you get that idea?”_  
  
“Well I am currently watching her prowl through the Emerald Forest leading a pack of Beowulfs, which I presume is the same one that ran off from her and her partner during initiation earlier today, with out any blood spilled.”, Ozpin answered before he brought his coffee mug up to his motuh, draining the last of its content.  
  
 _“So you did find out, seems like Tai owes me a hundred Lien. Anyway See Summer thought it best to tell noone outside the Family about Ruby, in the hope of letting her have a normalish Childhood and may be keep her from turning out like the last person born like her.”_  
  
“Well I do understand that idea, but if you had taken me into the fold earlier, I am sure we could have found a better cover story than", despite trying his best to stop it, a yawn interrupted the headmasters sentence, " ‘burn victim Faunus’ for her mask.”  
  
 _“Even so, Summer was very adamant about this, and when she passed away, we just couldn’t go against her wishes. Will you at least let Ruby know you found out?”_  
  
“I will most certainly do so, after all I believe that if we can make show her that she is accepted here despite what she is will help her very much.”


	9. Chapter Jiu

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Jiu

  
Just before the crack of dawn the next morning, most normal humans and Faunus were still asleep. The leader of team RWBY though was neither asleep nor in her bed, in fact she was climbing back in through the room’s window, the simple black hoodie and pants she was wearing torn up from a night spent in the Emerald Forest with her new pack.  
  
After Ruby had checked that she didn’t wake any of her teammates, she grabbed her school uniform and quickly made her way to the showers shared by their floor, her red cape hopefully covering any to revealing tears in her clothes fabric.  
  
While the water was running over her slightly sore muscles, the half Grimm was thinking back to what had happened during the night.  
  
It wasn’t actually that much, after she had reasserted her dominance over her new pack, they had, ultimately unsuccessfully, searched for any Humans wandering the forest at night. So Ruby had made her way back towards Beacon a few hours after midnight.  
  
When the young wolf eared girl finally returned to her room, both Blake and her sister were starting to get up.  
  
“Morning Blake, Morning Sis.”, Ruby greeted them, a genuine smile on her face.  
  
As she moved further into the rooms her greaves made silent klangs whenever they touched, which caused Blake’s bow to fold down slightly.  
  
“Ugh how can you be so cheerful this early?”, the Faunus asked while stretching, before she quietly added, “and can you not hit your greaves against each other please.”  
  
Realizing what her teammate meant, Ruby quickly widened her stand just a little further,”Sorry Blake.”  
  
During this short time, Yang had already jumped off of her bed, quickly grabbed her Uniform and other necessities, before greeting her sister in passing as she made her own way towards the showers. Shortly afterwards, Blake had also left the room, leaving Ruby the only person awake in the room for now.  
  
When the two girls returned they were dressed in their school uniforms as well, while the last member of their team was still fast asleep. As she wanted them to get all their stuff unpacked and stored away, and maybe decorated the room a bit so it wasn’t so dull, as soon as possible, the team’s leader decided to wake the white haired heiress.  
  
The wolf eared girl pulled a small whistle from her bag and folded down her ears before she brought it up to her lips in a very exaggerated move so the Faunus hiding her ears inside a bow could prepare herself for the shrill sound that she would soon unleash. Leaning down to the still sleeping member of their team, Ruby took a deep breath before she blew all the air she just inhaled through the whistle directly into Weiss’ ear.  
  
Shocked by sudden sound, the heiress sat up instantly, still slightly a sleep.  
  
“What is going on?!”  
  
“Good morning team RWBY!”, the redhead next to her greeted cheerfully, as evidenced by the fast movements of her tail.  
  
“Why did you wake me up so early?”, the heiress complained as she was getting out of her bed.  
  
“A, it is not early, Sun’s been up for at least three quarters of an hour by now. And B, we still need to unpack all our stuff.”  
  
“Okay fine”, the heiress responded before she quickly grabbed a few of her things and moved towards the door,” just give me a little time to shower and get dressed.”  
  
“Ugh, be quick about it.”, Ruby yelled after Weiss, who was already out the door.  
  
When Weiss returned the other girls had already begun to unpack their belongings, so she quickly joined in. Soon all their posters and a framed painting adorned the walls, their clothes were stored away and their school supplies were placed neatly on the desks they moved into their room and the books they brought stored in some bookshelves. Only four things were not yet fitting into the rooms, namely the four beds currently piled together in the center of the room.  
  
“This seems a little cramped”, Blake noted.  
  
“We could send some of our stuff back home”, Yang suggested weakly, before her half sister spoke up.  
  
“Nope, we are going to ditch the beds and replace them with bunk beds.”  
  
“I’m not sure if that would be safe.”, Weiss countered  
  
“No, I am the leader and I decided we are going to make bunk beds. **[** **Understood!]** ”, the half Grimm said, although the growl at the end confused the rest of the team.  
  
“Well it seems to be the most efficient way to solve our problem.”, Blake spoke up in support of their leader, so Weiss relented, not even trying again to convince the rest of her team to look for another solution.  
  
They discussed many different ideas on how to make bunk beds out of the normal ons they had. In the end they decided to go ahead and take the most sturdy and least read books they brought with them and stacked them on top of one bed’s posts so they could place a second one on top of it. But as this used up nearly all the books they were willing to use in such a manner, they were unsure how to suspend the other two beds above each other.  
  
Luckily Yang found a few rolls of duct tape in a nearby janitor's closet, which they used to suspend the third bed from the ceiling. Before they finished though, Blake tied a spare bedsheet to the ropes, so Ruby could take her ‘mask’ of when she was sleeping, a gesture which, while unnecessary in the eyes of the half sister’s, was still appreciated.  
  
Finally finished with their room, the girls just now noted how little time they had left over before their first class started today.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Their last class for the day was like torture for Ruby, not only did she have to endure how professor Port was proudly telling the class about the time he slew a pack of Beowulfs and instead of granting it at least the mercy of death, dragged the last of them back towards the village which had sent him out. The half Grimm managed to distracted herself from that by doodling into her notebook, but what she did not manage to ignore was the smell and quiet panicked whimpers of a boarbatusk escaping the, at least in her opinion, way too small cage in the corner of the classroom.  
  
The red haired girl normally didn’t care about the boar like Grimm, she was a Beowulf after all, but no Grimm deserved what the poor thing was surely going through in that cage. In addition to that the only idea she had why it was here meant that it would be dead soon either way, so why did it have to suffer before that?  
  
When the teacher asked them who believed themselves to embody all the traits a Huntsman should have, Weiss raised her hand.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
She had changed into her normal combat outfit as quick as she could while she was on her way to grab Myrtenaster, now Weiss stood before a cage, rapier raised ready to strike or stab whatever was inside.  
  
“Do your best.”  
  
“Go Weiss.”  
  
Her team was already Cheering for her,  
  
“Go for it’s belly”, and her leader was already back to ordering her around, much to Weiss’ displeasure. Not only was the girl barking orders like an Atlesian officer, no she even thought she knew how to fight the unknown enemy in the cage better than herself.  
  
“Let the match begin!”, the professors shout got the heiress’ attention back to the fight just as he used his strange weapon to break the lock keeping the inhabitant of the cage inside.  
  
The creature charging out of the cage was completely unknown to the girl, but its black fur and the white plates covering its body it was unmistakably one of the Creatures of Grimm.  
  
Moving out of the way from its initial charge the young huntress in training struck out against the beast's flank, so she could get a feeling for the strength of its natural armor. when her weapon skidded off, leaving nothing but superficial scratches, it became that she would have to go for the small gaps in its defense.  
  
So she got ready to face the next charge of the beast head on, so its own momentum would aid her in impaling it on her rapier. Taking a deep breath, she carefully aimed for a gap just behind its neck, and struck as soon as the beast came into reach. Myrtenaster was buried just short half it’s blades length into the Grimm’s body, but for the moment this seemed to only serve to enrage the beast meaning she had not harmed anything vital as of now.  
  
“I told you to go for the belly weiss!!”, her leaders sudden outburst disrupted her concentration and soon she found herself flung away from the beast. When she got back up she saw her weapon still embedded in the Grimm, but before she could form a plan how to get it back, the beast was charging at her again. She summoned one of her glyphs to block its way so she would not be crushed against the wall by the beast.  
  
To her immense luck, the Grimm impacted the glyph with her weapons hilt first, driving the weapon deeper into its flesh, until the beast impacted the white symbol fully and fell to the ground unmoving.  
  
As the beast began to dissolve, the heiress moved over to grab her weapon, projecting self confidence to make all this look planned.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
“What was that? If you had just done as I told you it would have been over in seconds!”, Ruby shouted at the white haired teammate she had just caught up to.  
  
“So you just expect me to follow your orders like a good little soldier? That attitude is exactly why I didn’t go to Atlas. And on top of that you have been nothing but an annoyance the whole day instead of acting like a leader.”  
  
“What have I done?”  
  
“At least nothing worthy of being made leader.”  
  
“So you think you would make a better leader than me?”  
  
“Yes I am sure I would be a much better leader than you.”  
  
“Well then, you me courtyard now.”  
  
“Gah how would that help at all”, Weiss asked confused, “I just think Ozpin made a mistake and if you excuse me, I am going to plead my case to someone that can do something about it.”  
  
With that the heiress was walking off again. Before Ruby could walk after her teammate, A hand was gently but firmly placed on her shoulder.  
  
“Give her some time to calm down before addressing her again Miss Rose”, the voice of the headmaster softly explained from behind her.  
  
“Hello professor Ozpin, how much did you hear?”, Ruby asked as she turned around to look the headmaster into the eyes while they talked.  
  
“Enough that I think you could use this advice. Unlike an officer who leads with authority or an alpha who leads with strength, a leader of a Huntsman team should lead by example and listen to the rest of his team if they have something to say.”, taking a sip from his coffee mug, he continued, “But that is not why I was looking for you, there is something else I need to speak with you about in private.”  
  
“Okay, but could you explain a bit more about your advice on leadership on the way?”, the half Grimm asked as she began following behind the professor, who lead the way towards his own office.  
  
“Most certainly miss Rose, for one you should always do your best to help your team, not only on the battlefield but also when you are just in classes or during downtime between missions.”  
  
This and similar advice was passed on to the young student until they stepped out of the elevator and into Ozpin’s office.  
  
“So now that we are here, where no one will listen in we can talk more freely.”, the headmaster explained as he refilled his coffee and indicated for Ruby to sit down on one of the chairs before his desk, “Now you surely know by now that here at Beacon we don’t judge people because of what they are. No matter if you are human or Faunus, male or female, if they are able and willing to become humanity's next defenders they are all welcome here. I personally think we need to add another species to that list wouldn’t you agree miss Rose?”  
  
Unsure what he meant, Ruby tapped her fingers together nervously while she answered, “I’m not sure what you are trying to imply professor.”  
  
“Well seems I need to be blunt about this, Ruby Rose, I know you are not a Faunus.”  
  
“Are You saying you think these ears and my tail are fake?”, Ruby asked whacking her tail against one of the chairs legs for emphasis.  
  
“No, but I think you are not wearing a mask at the moment.”  
  
Hearing the headmaster stating this as fact caused the young girl to lower her head before answering, “So you already found out. If you don’t mind me asking professor, what gave me away?”  
  
“Well the most obvious sign was how a pack of Grimm followed your commands last night, which was caught on some of the cameras remaining from initiation, the footage of which is currently only saved on my personal scroll. Also while they do exist, Faunus with more than one animal trait are exceedingly rare and your parents were both human.”, after that he let go of his coffee to fold his hands and wait for the half Grimm to look in his face before he continued,” Now don't worry, the only one I told about my findings so far is your uncle Qrow and I will not tell anyone else if you don’t want me to. Please believe me when I say this, I will do all I can do so you are treated like any other human or Faunus here at Beacon, even if people learn what you are.”  
  
Taken aback by the professors calm and sincerity Ruby barely managed to speak on clearly,”Wh-why are you so calm about this? I feared that if people learned about me they would just try to cut me down like the always do with my friends.”  
  
“Ruby Rose, you yourself said you wanted to prove that the big bad Beowulf can also go out and help the people, who would I be if I took your chance to do so away from you?”  
  
This calm explanation caused Ruby to spill tears of joy, after all she had been accepted despite what she was. “Oh thank you, thank you, but why do you believe I can achieve that?”  
  
“Has your mother never told you the Saga of Rakka Tal’gala the Grimmslayer?”  
  
“N-not that I remember why?”  
  
“Well then I will send one of the shorter versions to your scroll later. Now how about you get back towards your teammates and put that advice on leadership to good use?”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
After her talk with professor Port Weiss had taken a long walk through the campus to clear her head a bit and come to terms with what she had been told. when she finally returned to the team's room, she expected to find the rest of her team to be already asleep.  
  
But when she stepped inside she was surprised that Ruby Rose, her childish irresponsible team leader was still awake in her bed, and seemed to be reading through one of their textbooks.  _‘But how does she do that? the lights are all out.’_  Deciding to just ask the wolf eared girl, she made her way to their beds as quietly as she could. once she arrived there, she addressed her leader in a low whisper so she wouldn’t wake the rest of her team.  
  
“You are still awake and studying? how can you even read with only the moon outside for light?”  
  
“Faunus remember.”, came the answer as the girl indicated her silver eyes with the end of her pen, “Most of us have no problem seeing in the dark.”  
  
“Well in that case, do you want a coffee or anything to help you stay awake?”  
  
“Nope I am good for now, but thanks for offering anyway.”  
  
“Well then good night, leader.”  



	10. World of A Grimm Rose Solus: The Saga of Rakka Tal'gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is only the story Ozpin sent to Ruby.

WoAGR  
Solus  
The Saga of Rakka Tal'gala  


Ozpin:  
There a many Stories telling about the first Huntsmen and Huntresses what I have hear is the one your mother told me:  
  
~~~  
  
Legends claim that, when the seasons were still young, there was a time the Grimm were not attacking humans on sight, instead ignoring them until threatened like they did with normal wildlife today. Yes they were haunting mankind, always there when the darker emotions run high, appearing near villages filled with sorrow after great tragedies and around camps of soldiers marching to war as well as scaring fearful travelers. But never would they attack unprovoked.  
  
During those times there were said to be four Grimm as old as Remnant itself. they were referred to as the Elder Grimm, often spoken of as protecting Grimm and even humans from the world around them.  
  
The eldest of them was Fafnir the dragon, he called the skies and mountains of Northeastern Sanus his home, his giant maw spilling Grimm and fire to spend warmth to lot travelers, but also to defend himself when attacked.  
  
The second was Nydea the sandworm burrowing beneath the deserts of Sanus, her bodies coils would emerge from the sands to ward human and Grimm alike from the sandstorms plaguing this region, never fully showing her true size.  
  
Kaiju the Chimera was claimed to be the third born, wandering through Anima, her shape always an amalgamation of different animals, but if the rumors had been true never twice the same. She would free both men and beast from where they were trapped after the earth quaked.  
  
The last of their number was Yeti the giant who, along with the Grimm he sired, was adapted to the cold and ever frozen landscape of Solitas, leading all living beings, be they human, animal or Grimm out of valleys where avalanches were going to happen soon, sometimes by force if they didn’t heed his warnings.  
  
Just as the smaller and younger Grimm that emerged from the Elder’s blood they were content to leave Man alone if neither of them was in any danger.  
  
But Man was always quick to act out of fear, and many feared what the Elder Grimm could do to their homes if they so choose. Alas because of their immense size and ability to spawn new Grimm no hero was brave or foolish enough to try and take one down.  
  
When humans discovered Dust, they began to slay younger Grimm and expand their villages to cities, but still none stepped forward to try and take on the Elder Grimm, either because they knew of the goo they did for lost humans or out of fear of failing and losing their live.  
  
One young smith was going to change all of that soon enough.  
  
Born in a small village in the forest now known as Forever Fall, with hair a red darker than blood and Eyes as Crimson as those of the Grimm. Rakka learned the art of forging weapons from her father, surpassing his skill when she had experienced less than a score of Summers. Soon she began to experiment with working dust into the steel itself, producing blades like none seen before. Some of the villagers even claimed the young maiden used magic when crafting her weapons. These rumors coupled with her young age made sure few people bought wares from the young Tal’gala.  
  
So to prove the quality of her work she began to craft a blade to surpass any she had made before, folding sheets of burn Dust between sheets of steel forged with gravity Dust. When she had finished the blade she quenched it with ice Dust and Aura. It took her nearly a Year but when the weapon was finished she spent another month training to use the massive two handed blade, before she set out to prove herself and her masterpiece against a prey that would cement her name’s place in the history books if she were to succeed, the Elder Grimm. Raka decided that she would start with Nydea, believing her to be the easiest to find. She used the time spent traveling down south well, taking down bandits where ever she found them and helping out village smiths where she rested to pay for board and food.  
  
It was not to long before her travels finally reached the outskirts of Sanus’ deserts, which she marched into, headed straight for the nearest Oasis she was told of. On her second day in the desert, she saw a Sandstorm moving her way and, hoping to lure out her prey the young maiden headed straight towards it.  
  
Just as she had expected soon giant loops of black flesh protected by white bone erupted from the sand and when she finally was completely protected from the storm outside a head emerged from the ground before her.  
  
**[Child why were you heading towards the storm?]**  a voice seemingly female asked her.  
  
“To meet you oh great Worm!” the girl answered truthfully.  
  
With that began a long conversation between the two, it lasted until the storm passed them over, as Nydea was about to release the girl from inside her she asked.  
  
**[Can I do anything else before we part?]**  
  
“Yes DIE!”, With that exclamation Rakka swung her masterpiece faster than either pair of Crimson eyes could see and managed to sever the Elder Grimms massive neck in one strike, a trail of fire and ice in the wake of the red and silver blade.When the head hit the ground a Nevermore far above screeched and dove for the young Tal’gala, she managed to fend it off, but by doing so she missed how Nydea’s body didn’t turn into smoke but a thick black oil that soon spread beneath the dunes. As she had enough supplies still with her, she turned around, moving back towards the deserts edge instead of towards the Oasis.  
  
While still in the desert and another day after she left it behind, Grimm would jump out and attack her unprovoked, which confuse her quite a bit, after all on her way to the desert she hadn’t even seen any Grimm.  
  
While she was on her way back home, tales of Nydea’s death spread until they reached even the settlers in Solitas. When they found out who was responsible, Rakka received a letter by one of her best Dust suppliers asking her if she were willing to deal with the Yeti for them as well, as he normally destroyed more than a few Dust mines during his travels through Solitus.  
  
Not wanting to disappoint, she strapped on her masterpiece once more and began her travel to a nearby coastal village, where she purchased passage towards Solitus.When she arrived, the mine owner who asked for her helped supplied her with heavy clothing for this cold weather as well as supplies before the maiden set out once more to slay an Elder Grimm.  
  
She tracked him from the last valley he visited over mountains and across snow covered plains, but a week later she finally found him and, without saying a word moved to attack him. Their battle raged on for most of a Day but finally her blades dancing flames burned through the Giant's torso ending the battle in the woman's favour. But when she saw him not dissolve into mist but melt into liquid, Rakka questioned her decision to slay the Elder Grimm for the first time while the Yetis remains flowed down one of Soltius’ biggest glaciers. Again she was ambushed by Grimm on her way back, this time only barely making it back to the town she had set out from Losing her left hand to the Grimm and cold. After she had spent a few days to recuperate and was about to make her way back home, a group of Mistralian traders approached her and promised to reward her handsomely if she were to rid them of Kaiju. She agreed reluctantly, and so instead of reuniting with her father and her forge she arrived in a decently sized city in Mistral, where she spent a day to reforge her blade into a smaller blade and a shield to allow her to fight even with only one hand.  
  
After that she spent a month tracking down the Chimera, whom she found helping survivors of a recent Earthquake, unwilling to either break the her wrd or let people die, she moved to the Grimm's side and helped her save as many as she could before backstabbing the majestic creature before her, burning her blade through her heart. Her conviction broken, she barely managed to survive the Grimm that as the last two times had now become aggressive towards humans. Even so the MErchants upheld their end of the bargain and paid her with unimagined riches and transported her back to the eastern coast of Sanus.  
  
She had only traveled onwards when her travels were interrupted by the arrival of Fafnir.  
  
**[You slew my kin, so I razed your village, tinting the leaves of the very forest it stood in red with the blood of them and myself, Now what say you in your defence?!]**  The dragon roared, flames nearly scorching her hair.  
  
“I have nothing to say for myself.”, She replied, breaking down in tears from the guilt of what she did in Anima.  
  
At that the Dragon tipped two of his talons into a shallow wound left from his fight against the villagers, before smearing it into the maidens crimson eyes.  
  
**[Then from now until your line has redeemed themselves for the damage you caused, you shall watch on as all other humans are hunted by my children, while you and yous shall be left alone to witness the damage your action wrought with their own silver eyes.]**  With that the last of the Elder Grimm took flight, spreading his blood in pools across the land before vanishing forever from the surface of Remnant. Rakka meanwhile made her way towards the small coastal village she left Sanus from her now bright silver eyes filled with horror at the sight of Grimm tearing up villages while leaving her perfectly alone, just as Fafnir had proclaimed.  
  
She settled down in the village of Vale, forging tools for its craftsmen, until her daughter was born with the same silver eyes, when the little girl came of age, she took her mother's old weapon, made it anew for herself and left to slay the Creatures of Grimm, as her mother did before her and her daughter was going to do after her.


	11. Chapter Ti

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Ti  


  
When Yang woke up the following saturday morning, her half Grimm half sister was sitting at one of the desks in their room, reading something on her scroll. After getting down from her bed, she moved towards Ruby, careful not to wake up the still sleeping heiress.  
  
“Morning Sis, Whatcha reading?”, she asked while leaning over her sister's shoulder to see for herself.  
  
“Morning Yang”, the wolf eared girl replied while turning to look at her teammate,”its an old legend Ozpin learned about from mom. It claims that the Grimm left people alone, but were still feared until a Young weaponsmith set out and killed of the eldest of them. What really confuses me is how the blade she used is described similar to mom’s and that Rakka was cursed with silver eyes for her actions.”  
  
“Well not sure if you remember, but Summer once told us that she was inspired by an old story her mother told her when she made her weapon.”, noticing the slight signs of worry on the parts of her sister's face that could move, she continued, ”But let me just skim this real quick so I know what we’re talking about”  
  
Taking the scroll from her sister's hand she quickly read through the story that had her sister so worried. When she finished Yang looked over to the last occupied bed to make sure Weiss was still sleeping, before she spoke to her Sister, this time in a low whisper at first.  
  
“Well I could see the first part as a cautionary thing about your secret, as the Grimm were still feared even when they weren’t aggressive.”, raising her voice for the next part, she continued after handing the scroll back,”The rest seems like a simple cautionary tale about being aware of consequences.”  
  
Seeing the redhead's lips raise in an slight smile, Yang felt she had accomplished her goal of comforting her sister. As she was moving back towards her bed to sit down, the door opened as Blake entered the room. When the two sisters look at their bow wearing teammate, they began to wonder how she managed to open the door with the package she was carrying.  
  
“Ruby, this package arrived for you while I came back from my morning walk.”, the black haired girl said, but before she was able to put it down in front of the team leader, it was already gone, a trail of rose petals leading from the desk, towards the redheads bed.  
  
Surprised by that level of enthusiasm Blake asked: “So what did you expect to be delivered that got you so excited.”  
  
“Well,youseeIaskeddadtosendover-”, Ruby began, tofast for anyone to understand what she was trying to say, until her Sister interrupted her.  
  
“Ruby slow down a tad okay?”  
  
Taking a deep breath the youngest of the students repeated herself, this time at understandable speeds,”Well, you see, I asked dad to send over my Grimmcide games so we could do a Boardgame night together.”, as she continued her explanation Ruby was already opening up the parcel she held on her lap,”You know to have some fun, take a break from all the training and homework and maybe get to know each other better.”  
  
“That actually sounds like a good idea.”  
  
Putting an arm around Blake, Yang spoke up as well,”I have to agree with Blake, that sounds like it would be a lot of fun.”  
  
Before she talked again , the raven haired girl slipped out of the blond’s grip,”But where would we be playing?”  
  
Scratching at her canine ears, Ruby answered,“Well there are some smaller classrooms teams can reserve for study sessions, so I went ahead and reserved one for us.”  
  
Hearing this, Yang pulled her sister down from her bed, making sure not to drop the package and the first box Ruby had already removed from it.  
  
“Oh look at you Rubes, planning all this on your own, you really are growing up.”  
  
“So when did you plan to start?” Blake inquired, looking at the box Ruby had pulled out of the parcel, which seemed slightly bigger than what should have fit inside.  
  
“Well as it’s supposed to be a board game night, was thinking after dinner so somewhere between 6 and 7 tonight.”  
  
“Sounds good.”, Yang replied, but Blake was to confused to answer, as Ruby pulled another box out of the package that shouldn’t have fit inside either.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
When the evening finally came around, Ruby was already inside the small room, setting up the board when the rest of her team arrived. The half Grimm quickly set down the last counters before the rest of her team arrived at the table she had used.  
  
“So you already choose the scenario for the first game Sis?”  
  
“Yup, We’re going with the simplest of the one against the rest Scenarios first.”  
  
“Before the two of you discuss what we are going to do.”, Weiss spoke up, pulling back a chair to sit down while doing so,” Would you mind explaining the rules for those of us who haven’t played yet.” After she finished, the hires gave a short wave towards Blake and herself.  
  
“I was gonna get to that just now, see these figurines here?”, Ruby began explaining as she pointed to a set of ten plastic models, some carefully painted, others bare, only the basic brown color of the plastic differentiating them from a set of black figurines.  
  
“These are the survivors, each of you three is going to choose one of them to play as. Each of them has different abilities at the start and they gain different abilities the more Grimm they kill.”  
  
After this Ruby and Yang helped the rest of their team to choose the character they would be playing, explaining what the characters abilities did. In the end Weiss settled on a Dust sorcerer who started the game with a vial of burn Dust, allowing him to use fire to attack his enemies. Blake went with a young girl, which would be able to gain abilities aiding in both melee and ranged attacks later on, while Yang went with the same Barbarian she had used ever since she first tried him.  
  
When Ruby continued to explain the rules, Weiss noticed that Ruby had not taken a character for herself.  
  
“Ruby, why haven’t you chosen a Character?”  
  
“I already have”, the half Grimm replied, pointing at the miniature version of an alpha Beowulf sitting before her, “I will be playing as the Alpha leading the Grimm.”  
  
After she finished, the three survivors were placed inside the village and began to scout out the remains, hoping to gather enough resources to survive the trek to the next town over. Between the turns filled with slaying the grimm, breaking down doors and looting houses, the girls talked about many different things.  
  
“So Weiss, Blake where did you guys learn to fight?”, Yang asked, trying to distract from the fact that the door she had just opened revealed a small horde of Creeps and a Beowulf.  
  
“My father spared no expense to hire the best private instructors you could find in Atlas who used only the most sophisticated of training equipment.”  
  
“That explains why just stared at the Beowulfs during initiation and how you didn’t know the Boarbatusk weak spot.”, Ruby exclaimed, turning Weiss’ proud smile into a slight frown as her relatively recent failure were recounted.  
  
“That is sadly true, due to security concerns I was not able to train against actual Grimm more than a few times and even then there was always my sister Winter nearby.”, Weiss tried to justify herself before she glanced at Blake, waiting for her story.  
  
Blake let out a sigh, probably realizing that she would not get away without telling her story, “I grew up outside the kingdoms, and if you can’t fight of the Grimm to defend yourself, you won’t survive too long out there.”, taking a short breath, she turned towards the remaining to teammates, ”And what about you two?”  
  
“Well I just went to Signal Academy as many others here have, bute Ruby”, she grabbed onto her sister's shoulder, ” managed to get into their Accelerated Curriculum at 12 after training day and night with our Uncle for close to a year.”  
  
As Yang's grin widened when she telled the others about her sister's achievement, Ruby herself would be blushing red like her cloak, if her face didn’t consist of bone.  
  
“Guys how about we focus back on the game, after all I just drew a Goliath for the next spawn.”, Ruby spoke up, holding up the mentioned card.  
  
The Blonde’s grin was immediately replaced with a mouth hanging open in shock, “You got to be kidding me!”  
  
“How bad could that be?”, Weiss asked unfamiliar with both the game rules and the actual Grimm species mentioned, “after all we have managed to -”, the words died in her throat when Ruby pulled the model that belonged to the card out of the box, the Grimm elephant was at least twice as big as any other miniature that was on the board at them moment.  
  
To the immense relief to the three survivor players they did manage to take down the Goliath, although Blake’s Character died in the process, which prompted the cat Faunus to leave for the night, while the other girls played on.  
  
“So Weiss did you do anything for fun back at home”, Ruby asked after the first game was finally over, while she and Yang set up a new scenario.  
  
“Well I always liked singing, but the most fun I had was when my sister invited me to join her and her friends for a game of Dusttech.”, the heiress answered an honest smile gracing her lips.  
  
“Uh that's the game with the Giant combat machines right?”, Yang asked, eyes glistening with excitement.  
  
“Yes, but they were playing the corresponding roleplaying game.”  
  
“Uh can you get the rules sent over for our next game night?”, Ruby asked, just as excited as her sister seemed to be.  
  
“I guess so.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Early the next morning, Blake was woken by a sudden loud noise. Opening her eyes and taking a look around the team's room, she quickly noticed Ruby standing next to a fallen over chair, already dressed in her full uniform. IT struck the Cat Faunus as odd how the girl was already awake, after all when she had left it had already been close to midnight.  
  
“Ruby why are you already up”;blake asked, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes while sitting up, “Or better question how are you already up? It’s only”, a quick glance towards the nearest clock told her it was 5:50,” It’s not even six in the morning?”  
  
“What do you mean?”, Ruby asked, her mask probably hiding a confused expression judging by her tone of voice, “I’m always awake at this time in the morning.”  
  
“Even after you played a Board game with Yang and Weiss for who knows how long?”  
  
“Yes?”, Ruby replied seeming unsure herself.  
  
“So you want me to believe that what 4 hours of sleep at most are enough for you?”  
  
“I got more than enough sleep tonight.”  
  
“Well in that case please be quiet I am trying to sleep.”, with that Blake turned her back towards her fellow Faunus, still suspicious of her explanation as the cat Faunus drifted back to sleep.


	12. Chapter Odinnadtsat'

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Odinnadtsat'  


  
“Do we have any volunteers for the first match of the week?”, professor Goodwitch asked, her gazes traveling over the Students seated on the arena’s benches. When even after a few moments none of the students rose to the challenge, Glynda generated a random pairing on her scroll.  
  
“As none of you have volunteered, the first fight will be Ruby Rose against Cardin Winchester.”  
  
As she heard her name, the young half Grimm went to her locker as quick as she could manage without her semblance to retrieve her weapon.When she returned to the arena, she had to wait for a few moments until her opponent arrived as well, a decently sized mace now resting on his armored shoulder. As he laid eyes on Crescent Rose’s staff form, the boy before her smirked before he spoke up.  
  
“So the little bitch uses a big stick to fight? And here I thought that ‘sister’ of yours was able to teach an animal like you how to use a real weapon.”  
  
“At least I know how to do more with a weapon than to let it drop onto an opponent. Are you sure you could deal with me and a ‘real’ weapon?”, Ruby retorted, undisturbed by his attempt to insult herself. After all she had been the target of more creative and better ones, filled with actual hatred, anger and sometimes even sorrow.  
  
“Bring it you mutt.”, Cardin replied, a selfasured grin on his face.  
  
“Well you asked for this, so don’t whine about it afterwards.”, Ruby replied, an equally smug and self assured smile on her lips as she unfolded her weapon to it’s full glory. She would bring the little racist ego down a peg or two.  
  
“Well if you are finally finished, let the match begin.”, with those the Glynda stepped back to make room for the two combatants to fight.  
  
Cardin immediately charged at the Scythe wielding girl, his mace raised high above his shoulder. Ruby waited for the last moment before her enemies weapon connected with her shoulder to vanish in a cloud of rose petals. She stopped behind him, striking at his back with the flat hammer head opposite of Crescent Rose’s blade. Still processing how she dodge his attack at the last possible moment, Cardin was unable to dodge the attack, but even so his backplate reduced both the pain he felt and the drain of his Aura reserves.  
  
Using some of the momentum imparted on his body the boy spun around quickly, hoping to catch his opponent with a horizontal swing of his mace. Firing a bullet at Carin’s chest, Ruby used the recoil to jump back and evade the mace swung at her. The heavy Dust infused bullet easily punched through the front of the boy’s armor and at this nearly point blank range drained quite a bit more of his Aura than her previous attack. When she saw that Cardin was staggering back from the unexpected impact of the bullet, the wolf eared girl immediately tried to capitalize on this with a wide strike at the boy’s unprotected knee, the blade rotating forward to extend her reach.  
  
To her misfortune, he had stepped far enough back to evade her attack completely. By circling her Scythe above her head, she preserved part of its momentum while stepping forward to close the distance. Her next strike, aimed at Cardin’s hip was blocked in time easily by the mace wielding student. By now the smug grin had left his face, in its place was a more neutral and determined expression, proving that this was not how he had expected the fight to proceed.  
  
Ruby took a small step backwards using her weapons greater reach to stay outside the range of Cardin’s attacks while still keeping pressure on him for now. A quick stab connected just beneath the boy’s chestplate, who had not expected an attack like this and was thus unprepared to parry in time. Ruby could taste her opponent’s anger rising before he charged at her once again with his mace raised high. Using her Semblance once more the half Grimm sidestepped before striking Cardin’S side with the back of Crescent Rose’s blade, once more set at a right angle. The additional momentum imparted by this hit caused the armored student to stumble, before he barely managed to keep standing. Determined to change that, Ruby held her weapon down like a farmer would hold his scythe, but instead of cutting grass, she used it to pull Cardin’s legs out under him, using the recoil of another shot to augment her own strength. What remained of the recoil she once more conserved with a circular movement around her own body. Bringing the weapon back around she used the point of Crescent Rose’s blade like the spike on the head of a warhammer, piercing through the armor protecting Cardin’s biceps. After breaking through the armor, the attack still had enough force left to not only break what little remained of her opponent's Aura and dig into his arm until it met the bone.  
  
Cardin let out an earsplitting scream of pain, which he immediately repeated as Ruby removed her weapon from his wound as the Professor came running towards the injured student, a first aid kit under her arm. She removed the ruined armor as quickly as she could, before cutting of the sleeve of the boys shirt to reveal the injury as well as an inch of skin around it so she could bandage it properly. While Glynda treated the wound as best as she could, Ruby stared wide eyed at the scene while mumbling under her breath.  
  
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think his armor would be that flimsy, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m honestly so so sorry…”  
  
“Mister Lark please escort your team leader to the medical facilities, his injury requires a more professional assessment.”, When the injured student was helped up by his teammate, the professor turned around to face the young half Grimm, “As for you Miss Rose, I believe you in that you did not mean for this to occur, but even so this accident was completely preventable. So until you deliver an essay, satisfying my standards for quality, about methods you could have used to gauge the strength of both your opponents armor and remaining Aura, you may not participate in any sparring matches, no matter if they are during or outside of combat classes. Am I understood?”  
  
“Yes professor Goodwitch”, Ruby answered her gaze unable to meet the professor's eyes out of shame.  
  
“In that case please return your weapon to your locker and sit down.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Roughly an hour later teams RWBY and JNPR sat together in the cafeteria enjoying their lunch break. Except for Ruby, who was already searching for information she could include in her essay on her scroll. They were discussing how his injury and the humiliation Cardin received at the hands of the young half Grimm would affect his habit of bullying other students. Before they could come to any conclusion, Yang noticed him and his team approach a bunny eared Faunus girl. When the boys had surrounded the girl, Cardin stepped forward to grab onto one of her ears with his uninjured arm. As he pulled on it the girl tried unsuccessfully to hide her discomfort.  
  
Unwilling to see this continue, Yang stood up,her anger plain to see on her face. She had often heard her little sister get insulted for her ‘Faunus’ heritage, and she would have at least earned a suspension or two if Ruby hadn’t urged her to not attack them, claiming that all the hatred or sometimes even grief made for a nice snack for the half Grimm. But with the little redhead to preoccupied to stop her sister, the blonde brawler walked over to help the poor Faunus.  
  
As she stepped in front of the injured bully he looked up to her.  
  
“Hey Beautiful, Here to join the f-”  
  
He didn’t get any further in his greeting as Yang had enveloped his balls in a nearly vice like grip.  
  
“Not really, but unlike the poor girl whose ear you tried to rip off, I am not above hurting an injured asshole further.”  
  
As Cardin opened his mouth to reply, Yang stared into his eyes, her own ones burning a Crimson and sparking with anger, causing any words he wanted to say to die in his throat before Yang continued.  
  
“Now I see two ways this situation can be resolved. One you step back now and never do something like this again, or two I rip of your balls. I don’t really care either way so what do you choose?”  
  
“Might I suggest a third option miss Xiao Long?”  
  
Hearing the headmaster's voice, Yang let go of Cardin and turned around to face the professor.  
  
“Of course professor Ozpin.”  
  
“Well then how about You, mister Winchester and miss Scarlatina accompany me to a nearby classroom where we can discuss this situation and any appropriate punishment in _private_?”  
  
Hearing the emphasis on the last word, Yang took a look around and finally noticed that most of the students had their eyes on them, the meals standing before them seemingly forgotten.  
  
“Of course professor”, the trio of students involved in the incident replied before the headmaster lead them out of the cafeteria in silence. A few minutes later they arrived in a small empty classroom. After Ozpin sat down behind the desk, he turned his attention towards the bunny eared Faunus.  
  
“Miss Scarlatina, can you explain how the situation in found you three in came to be?”  
  
“As I had to meet up with professor Oobleck for the remedial history classes, I missed the time the rest of my team had lunch so I grabbed something to eat on my own. When I tried to find somewhere quiet to sit down, mister Winchester and what I assume to be his team surrounded me, throwing insults about my heritage at me before he finally grabbed one of my ears. shortly after that miss Xiao Long stepped in and stood up for me. She grabbed onto his groin and began talking him down, ending with the threat you probably overheared.”  
  
“Is that true?”  
  
“Yes”, all of them replied.  
  
“Very well, as Mr. Winchester and his team were obviously the aggressor, they will not participate in the field trip to Forever Fall next week. Now while standing up for your fellow students is admirable, the way you went about it, is something we should talk about. So if the other two of you would be so kind as to move to where your next classes will take place.”  
  
When the two students had left the classroom, Ozpin closed the door behind them, locking it before he returned to his position behind the desk.  
  
“Now miss Xiao Long, would you mind telling me why you intervened in such a manner to defend a stranger?”, finishing his sentence the professor leaned forward, folding his hands together.  
  
“Because stopping Cardin was the right thing to do, I am sure, if she hadn’t been preoccupied with her essay, Ruby would have intervened herself.”  
  
“That may be true, but isn’t the threat of castration a bit too much just to stop a bully?”  
  
“Well you see, during our time at Signal I often witnessed Ruby getting insulted for her Ears and tail. Seeing it happen again here caused all of that to boil up again and I let my anger overwhelm me.”, Yang replied pulling her hands through her mane of hair to calm herself.  
  
“So then why is there no report of similar events from your time at Signal?”  
  
“Because Ruby always asked me not to interfere for her, after all she was there at least in part to proof that she was just as good as any other student there.”  
  
Leaning back, the professor continued,  
  
“Are you sure there was no other reason your sister might have wanted the bullying to continue?”  
  
After a nervous chuckle Yang answered the question,  
  
“None that I can think of.”  
  
“So you are unaware of your sister’s”, at the professor paused for a moment to consider his next words,” dietary needs?”  
  
This question took Yang by absolute surprise and it showed, but after a moment she had collected herself enough to speak once more.  
  
“Ho-how do you know about that?”  
  
“When I saw young miss Rose pet a Beowulf the night after initiation, I had a very interesting talk with her the following day.”, as Yang was about to speak, he silenced her with a gesture before he continued,”And no I haven’t told anyone else about her secret and got rid of the video of her nightly activities.”  
  
“But why didn’t she tell me you knew?”  
  
“I am sure your sister had her reasons for that. But now that you know, let me be clear that if she ever needs help because of what she is, I will do my best to provide it.”  
  
Standing up once more Ozpin continued,”But even so we can not allow you to act in such a manner just because you are not able to deal with your anger. Therefore you will be taking additional classes under professor Peach until she tell’s me you have that anger under control.”  
  
Opening the door Ozpin left the room before he turned around one final time,”Also I would suggest rejoining your classmates for now.”  
  



	13. Chapter Twaalf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So the Cat is finaly out of the Bag, or the Beowulf out of the hood to be more precise. Anyway any Comments and Critique is appreciated.

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter twaalf  


  
The Forest of Forever Fall was a beautiful sight to behold, the leaves on the trees mostly a deep red with a few yellow and brown ones hidden between them. Even the grass seemed to be red in the little daylight that breached through the foliage of the thick, old trees.  
  
 _‘The only thing disturbing this spectacular view’_ , Ruby thought to herself, _’are we students and professor Goodwitch’_  
  
The aforementioned teacher was leading the students on an excursion through the forest to gather samples of the red sap of the trees for professor Peach to study.  
  
“Now remember students, the sap is said to attract the creatures of Grimm living in this forest so stay alert while filling your jar. Do not grow comfortable just because we haven’t encountered any Grimm so far.”, Glynda explained, her riding crop held at the ready to discipline anyone who dared to not pay attention, “Now we will meet again here at 3 which gives you roughly two hours to gather a jar full of sap each. Stay with your teas, the Grimm will find us sooner or later.”  
  
Unheard by the professor, the young half Grimm let out a silent groan, after all she and her ever growing pack had spent the last few nights to claim this part of the forest as their Territory so the class would not be disturbed. Ruby was just glad she had taken the Command and Logistics electives, otherwise she probably would not have been able to coordinate the three dozen Beowulfs who made up her pack.  
  
“Hey Ruby you coming?”, Yang asked, the fingers drumming on her thigh displaying her impatience.  
  
“Coming Sis”, the wolf eared girl replied, quickly catching up with her team. They made their way a bit farther from the group than most others before they found themselves before a small grove of trees they decided to draw the sap from. They agreed that two of them would fill the jars while the other two kept looking out for any nearby Grimm. But that plan broke apart as soon as Ruby cut into the tree in front of her. Her senses were assaulted by a strange aroma, it seemed to be similar to a deep fear of someone near her, but not fresh, more like what she had always imagined her dad and uncle meant when they were talking about aged whiskey and wine.  
  
Whatever it actually was the half Grimm knew two things about it with absolute certainty. One it came from the tree’s sap in front of her and two she needed to taste it as soon as possible. So Ruby took the, to her at least, obvious action and bend down to lick up the sap dripping out of the incision in the tree’s bark. It tasted even better than it smelled for the first few moments, but after a while an unimaginable vile taste took over in the young half Grimm’s mouth, not unlike the few times she had bitten down on another Grimm strong enough to draw blood. This caused her to stop consuming more of the sap and she stood back up. Looking around she noticed a few things that had escaped her with her mind so focused on the sap.  
  
For one team JNPR had joined them and were now staring at her along with her own team. the next few things she noticed were about herself, her claws seemed to have grown a bit as her gloves seemed to be pierced slightly at the fingertips. She also was standing on her toes unconsciously, trying to stand normal, she soon noticed that her heels would raise just a tad if she did not concentrate on putting them on the ground.  
  
The last thing she noticed was how Nora, normally hyper active and cheerful, was cowering behind ren, seemingly ready to vanish in his shadow at a moment's notice, a little leftover sap glistening around her mouth, just like it must be around the half Grimm’s own.  
  
But before any of the students could voice their questions, Glynda’s voice cut through the air from behind Ruby her tone not stern but concerned, “Miss Rose and Valkyrie come with me immediately.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
 _‘What in Remnant were those two thinking?’_ , Glynda asked herself as she stared at the two girls in front of her, their mouths by now cleaned of the remaining sap that had clung to them.  
  
Interestingly, where Nora Valkyrie looked more afraid than a civilian cornered by a creature of Grimm, Ruby Rose seemed a tad confused, with a hint of a smile on her lips.  
  
“You two will stay with me until we return to Beacon, where you will go straight to the infirmary, who knows what drinking that sap does to you.”, she informed the students as she slapped her weapon into her palm for emphasis.  
  
“Ah, professor Goodwitch”, the Faunus before her said, fidgeting with her hands nervously, “I think there is something I need to tell you in private, before you send me to the infirmary.”  
  
Bringing her hand up to her temple to massage away the headache that was sure to be coming her way soon the teacher replied.  
  
“Miss Rose, what could possibly be more important than making sure you won't react badly to that sap?”  
  
The masked girl before her took a slightly suspicious look around, before she grabbed onto a strand of her dark red hair and cut it off with a knife she seemingly drew from her sleeve.  
  
Holding onto the cut of hair, she held them out for Glynda to see, blocking the view onto it for everyone around them with her body and remaining hand.  
  
“I don’t know what that strand of hair is sup-”, the teacher’s words refused to leave her mouth at the sight of her student’s hair dissolving like the cut of limbs of a Grimm. When the hairs had completely dissolved into mist, she had composed herself enough to continue their conversation.  
  
“What is the meaning of this miss Rose?”  
  
“Before I tell you professor, could we please step away from everyone else for a moment? I don’t want everyone to know what I am about to tell you, after all at the moment only my family and the headmaster know about it.”  
  
Taking a deep breath Glyna replied, “If you insist, mr. Ren, would you please look after your teammate until we return?”  
  
After the green clad student had nodded in acknowledgement, the professor led her red haired student a bit further into the forest, until they were out of hearing range for the other students.  
  
“Now can you tell me why your hair dissolves like a dead Grimm?”, Glynda asked, arms crossed before her chest.  
  
“Because, at least technically, they are Grimm fur.”  
  
Glynda had to suppress the urge to facepalm at the girl's ridiculous claim.  
  
“Miss Rose, despite that mask on your face, you are not a Grimm, so please tell me the truth.”  
  
“Half Grimm actually, but if you really don’t believe me let me show you something else. YOu did note earlier how there weren’t many Grimm in the forest to day right?”  
  
When the teacher just gave a confused nod, the Girl before her let out a howl that had no business escaping from a Faunus’ throat,  **“[Show yourselves]”** ,before she continued, “That is because this is my territory and I told my pack to stay away for now.”  
  
As the girl finished a group of Beowulfs closed in on the two persons in front of them. As Glynda readied herself to defend her student and attack the monsters before her she was interrupted by the young huntress in training, who hadn’t even drawn her weapon yet.  
  
“Wait! they won’t attack unless told to! **[** **Lay down!]** ”, the student shouted slightly panicked, before she let out a growl, just as inhuman as the howl before.  
  
Immediately all the beowulfs dropped on their bellies, lowering their heads to the ground in submission.  
  
This surprising sight, coupled with the mask the girl was wearing, brought back to mind an old rumor Ozpin once told her about their enemy.  
  
 _It is rumored that long ago, she was just a girl with feathers in her hair and a Grimm’s face infront of her own._  
  
Which opened her mind to the possibility that Ruby Rose was indeed telling her the truth, which left her with one question to ask for the moment.  
  
“Why was I not informed about this?”  
  
“Because I asked professor Ozpin not to tell anyone else about it.” the young half Grimm responded. Thinking about it, of course the Headmaster would do his best to respect Miss Rose’s wishes, the last thing any of them needed were two people able to command Grimm and with a grudge against them.  
  
“Very well, in that case I will talk about this with the headmaster later. Could you please tell you ‘pack’ to leave so we can join your classmates once more?”  
  
After another howl from the young girl, the two of them rejoined the group of students, while the Grimm returned to the shadows between the trees.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Later that night, Blake laid in her bed, pretending to sleep.  _‘Why did Ruby suddenly start liking up all that sap? After all it was perfectly odorless and according to Nora it also did not have any taste at all.’_ , The black haired Faunus mused, her ears twitching inside her bow, ' _Just another thing I’ll have to the list of strange things I noticed about Ruby I guess.’_  
  
The creaking noise of their window opening, interrupted Blake's thoughts. Intrigue by the the sound , as she had assumed the rest of her team were asleep, she turned to look at it. Seeing a trail of Rose petals leading out of it and towards the forest, Blake decided to follow it before all of them dissolved. jumping out the window in nothing but her yukata might have not been her best idea, but even so she landed on the ground with a grace and ease only surpassed by actual felines, before she followed the trail of petals, which slowly started to dissolve.  
  
It took her nearly fifteen minutes, the last few of which she had been following the traces of reddish smoke, but just as she was about to give up as she couldn't see any traces of her team leader anymore, she heard Beowulfs howl as well as Ruby’s laughter. Following the sound a few hundred meters, the Faunus arrived at the edge of a clearing at the outskirts of the Forever Fall Forest. “Ruby where are -”, was all she managed to say before the scene before her fully registered in her mind, the resulting confusion overwhelming her for the moment. In the center of the clearing sat Ruby, one of her hoodies sleeves torn open, revealing fur the same near black red as her hair, as well as white stubs where the Beowulfs around her had spines and bone plates on their arms. More confusing than that was the fact that she was sitting on the back of a Beowulf and scratching its ears, as if it was some oversized puppy.  
  
“Oh, hi Blake”, Ruby said cheerfully as she turned towards the Faunus, either unaware or unconcerned with the remaining Beowulfs littered throughout the clearing.  
  
“Gues you found out my secret”, the redhead continued slightly subdued as she stood up and began walking towards Blake, which the Beowulfs took as their cue to fall in line behind her, before she turned around and growled at them. As the Grimm returned to where they had been previously, Ruby had reached Blake and spoke to her once more.  
  
“Before you ask any questions, would it be okay if we went back to our dorm room? I don’t want to explain all this”, She gestured to her exposed ar, before waving it towards the Grimm, ”to Weiss all over again.”  
  
Following Ruby’s gesture, Balke took a closer look at the Grimm in the Clearing, many of which were still looking at her with hunger in their eyes.  
  
 **“[No threatening the Faunus]”** , As Ruby growled at them most of them stood down.  
  
Unsure what to make of this situation, Blake just nodded, before following Ruby back towards the campus, to afraid to trust in her own voice until the Grimm were well out of sight.  
  
“Ruby just one question, why weren’t those Grimm attacking you?”  
  
Turning her head around slightly the redhead replied, “Because I already had already beaten the strongest of them to become alpha, now no more questions till we get to Weiss and Yang.”  
  
Continuing on their way towards Beacon, Blake hoped that the answers she would get there would make more sense.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
It took the two of them quite a while to return to their orm, climb back in through the window and get the rest of the team to wake up. Getting enough caffeine into their systems so they could actually think took another five minutes, but now there was nothing else to do for Ruby except to reveal the truth about herself to Weiss and Blake. Holding her exposed arm nervously, the half Grimm began.  
  
“So there is something Yang and I kept from the two of you until now. But with what Blake saw tonight , I don’t think I can keep it secret from you much longer. You see, I am not actually a Faunus, afterall how could I be with both of my Parents being Human. I mean there is adoption, but then how could I look so similar to Mom.”, before Ruby could continue her rambling, Weiss interrupted her, “If you are not a Faunus, how do you have a wolf tail and ears? And what is up with your arm?”  
  
“I was getting to that!”, Ruby exclaimed, “See when mom was pregnant with me she was thrown into one of those tar like pits Grimm come from, which made me part Beowulf”, at that revelation the two girls unrelated to her gasped in surprise but let her continue with her explanation, probably to shocked to interrupt.  
  
“Which of course, means there are a load of things that are different about me than you, most prominently the fact I can 'talk' to other Grimm, although I never got any besides Beowulfs listenign to me. I also got all the same bone thingies of a Beowulf, including a face made of bone, as well as ears and a tail. I can tell you more about all that later though, any questions so far?”  
  
It took a moment or two for Blake and Weiss to collect themselves enough to respond, during that Ruby could already smell the anger wafting towards her from Blake.  
  
“So the story about your scars and that Faunus rally are all lies?!”, the cat Faunus yelled at her, “Do you know what I agreed to do because of that Story?”, Blake continued as she stood up and moved closer to Ruby, “I helped the White Fang destroy homes, steal personal belongings and even helped gather intel for a few assassinations of Faunus exploiting businessmen, all because of _**a lie you used to hide your monstrous nature?!**_ ”, at this point the rage directed at her was intense enough that Ruby felt she would either throw it back up somehow or be sated completely for the coming month. Before she continued Blake ripped off her bow, revealing her cat ears to Yang and Weiss, “And then you  _Grimm_  have the audacity to tell me I should not hide who I am, all the while pretending to be a Faunus? what do you have to say for yourself!”, blake finished her index finger poking into Ruby’s chest.  
  
“Blake I had no idea dad’s story could have affected Faunus so strongly”, the half Grimm replied, her eyes close to shedding tears from what she imagined Blake must have been through. Her voice was filled with a feeling of guilt as she continued, ”Is there anything I can do to help you deal with everything you did?”  
  
“Can you make five years of criminal and terroristic activity just vanish like your hair did a moment ago?”, Blake suggested sarcastically, arms crossed before her chest and her Yellow eyes drilling into Ruby’s silver ones. Ruby took a moment to think her next words through carefully before she took a deep breath to calm herself to answer. “I think I know exactly the person who can help you make that happen, at least if you are willing to make up for what you did back then. Do you want me to introduce you to him?”  
  
Blake had definitely not expected an answer to that effect and it was evident on her face, her mouth hanging slightly open and her eyes widened in surprise.  
  
“Who is he?”  
  
“Detective Viridian, he leads the VPD’s anti White Fang task force, I’ve known him for quite a while, he had to interrogate me multiple times because of my face. I am also sure he will do the best he can for our case if you tell him what you still know about the White Fang.”  
  
“Do you think we could call him right now?”  
  
A short nod from her team leader was all the answer she got before they left the room.  
  
Unnoticed by the two of them Weiss at on her bed, utter confusion on her face for everyone to see. Seeing the heiress clench her fists, Yang sat down next to her,”Hey Weiss, I know Ruby being part Grimm must be quite a shock for you, is there anything you want to know she didn’t already explain?”  
  
“It’s not about Ruby, while that is a big surprise, I am more shocked that Blake is a Faunus and an ex-member of the White Fang at that. And I never suspected a thing. Do you know what they did to my family, to our company? Board members killed, mines sabotaged endangering both humans and Faunus working there, and now I learn that if Blake was still with them I could have been the next casualty of those terrorists. If you don’t mind I would like some time to think all that through on my own?”  
  
“Sure, but I would suggest getting a second opinion on all this, it often helped me get my head clear once more. If you want mine, just ask ok?”, Yang replied standing up and leaving her teammate on her own as she had asked.  
  
“I will.”, was the only reply she got before Weiss laid down on her bed and sunk into her thoughts or sleep.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Gruoni Veridian was sound asleep at the moment, at least until the ringing of his scroll ripped him from his slumber. A quick look at the picture of a young wolf Faunus, wearing a Beowulf mask and half a donut sticking out of her mouth, informed him of the callers identity. When he picked up the call he was surprised how awake the fifteen, or was it already sixteen, year old sounded at 5 am.  
  
 _”Hello Officer Viridian.”_  
  
“Morning Miss Rose”, before he could continue further a yawn forced itself past his lips,”Are you aware what time it is?”, He replied trying his best to sound at least half way awake as he made his way to the coffeemaker.  
  
 _“Not really, but I just learned someone I knew quite the White Fang recently and I hoped you could help each other.”_  
  
For once the Police Officer was glad that his coffee was not finished, as he would just have spread it over his wall when he heard what the young girl had said. Unwilling to wait until his coffee was finished he grabbed one of the cans of energy drinks he kept for situations like these where he needed to be awake sooner than his coffee could be finished.  
  
“Give me moment to get fully awake.”, he place his scroll on the counter before he opened the drink and downed about half of it in one go. taking a short breath he picked up his scroll once more.  
  
“Ok I need to speak with them directly, I promise I’ll do my best to get them as much of a pardon for their past deeds as I can.”  
  
 _“Okay, can’t ask for more than that I guess.”_ , the young Huntress in training replied.  
  
After a short moment a different female voice spoke to him from his scroll.  
  
 _“Hello? Ruby said you could help me deal with my past in the White Fang?”_  
  
“Well I won’t be able to undo it.”, he responded truthfully before taking a sip from his now finished coffee, “But I can definitely help you make up for it. Say how did you come to know miss Rose?”  
  
 _“We are both on the same team here at Beacon, why do you ask?”_  
  
“I was just curious, now for the Important question, how long ago did you leave the ‘Fang?”  
  
 _“Not quite a month before the Semester began.”_  
  
Silently pumping his fist at that piece of information, he continued,”Okay that is really good for us, now you will need to come to the police station to have your official statement taken, so could you please hand me back to Ruby?”  
  
During the moment it took for the girls on the other end to switch the scroll around once more, he finished his cup of coffee.  
  
 _“So what now Mr. Viridian?”_ , Ruby asked him uncertainty in her voice.  
  
“I’ll send a request for assistance in our investigation into the Fang to your headmaster, asking for your team specifically to take this mission. You will then come to the police for your briefing next week, which we will use to take your friends statement as well.”  
  
 _“Okay see you then.”_ , the girl replied way to cheerfull for this time in the morning.  
  
After the young Faunus ended the call, Gruoni let out a shout of joy, hopefully not waking up his neighbours. Such a recent defector could be an unprecedented wellspring of information for their investigation. And with her being on a team at Beacon, there were no doubts that she had been more than some simple thug and willing to work for the good of everyone. Now to get his superiors of his case for involving first-Semesters in a mission and to arrange for Immunity for their newest informant.  
  
~~~~~~~~~


	14. Chapter Tri Ar Ddeg

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter tri ar ddeg

  
The revelations about her teammates still weighed heavily on the Heiress’s mind later that morning. So when the rest of her Team went to get breakfast, Weiss let them go ahead before she walked to the airships taking students from and to Vale.  
  
The ride into the city seemed shorter than normal to the young Schnee, but that was most likely due to how deep in her thoughts she was the whole ride, trying to decide how to feel about the secrets her teammates had kept from her.  
  
_‘I still can’t believe I didn’t notice Blake was a Faunus all this time. And what about Ruby? I mean just the idea sounds so ridiculous, but she was so sure of what she told us. And all those bony nubs on here arm were a little too accurate for a joke.’_  
  
Her thoughts were momentarily interrupted when the airship set down in Vale. While disembarking, Weiss pulled out her scroll to call up the Vale regional Headquarter of her father’s company. To the Heiress’ surprise, Yang suggestion to get another opinion seemed quite reasonable, but there was only one person not already involved Weiss could trust to keep their conversation secret.  
  
But if she wanted to call her Sister she needed a CCT relay strong enough to reach Atlas. Now while she could have gone to either the CCT tower on Beacons Campus itself, or used the relay in the Academies Library to make the call, Weiss had decided against it so she wouldn’t risk getting overheard by other students. For the same reason she was unwilling to use the public one located near the center of the city. Luckily for the Heiress’ the SDC had private relay in each of their regional headquarters to help facilitate intercontinental cooperation between its branches.  
  
The only downside to this was that if she used the company's assets there was no way of getting around talking to her father. Weiss had tried to find a better solution, at least when her thoughts weren’t dominated by the truth about her teammates, but as she hadn’t been able to find one, she was now calling the frontdesk of the Vale SDC headquarters.  
  
“Greetings miss Schnee, what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”, A young female voice sounded from her scroll once the call connected.  
  
“As I have no obligations at Beacon today, I wanted to speak to my father about my progress. I would like to use one of your meeting rooms for the call to Atlas to preserve the privacy of what we will talk about.”, Weiss answered, her displeasure about talking to her father evident on her face, which the secretary she was speaking with could not see.  
  
“That should be easily possible, when will you arrive and should we inquire with your father’s assistant for an optimal timeslot?”  
  
“As I already am in Vale, it shouldn’t take me more than 15 minutes to arrive. And yes if you could make sure I won’t be interrupting any important business that would be appreciated.”, the Heiress confirmed, already holding her free hand out to call a taxi.  
  
“Should we prepare some refreshments for you?”  
  
“Yes that would be nice.”  
  
“Then we will await your arrival.”  
  
With that the call was terminated, just before a taxi stopped for the white haired girl. As she entered the driver inquired her destination.  
  
Roughly twenty minutes later the Heiress was sitting in a moderately sized meeting room, waiting for her father to call her, as had been agreed upon with his assistant. Taking deep breaths, Weiss prepared herself for the Conversation that would soon take place.  
  
Finally the screen before her lit up with the incoming call from her father’s office. As she accepted the call, the screen showed her father sitting in front of his desk, an unreadable expression on his face.  
  
“Hello daughter. What is the reason for your call.”  
  
Putting up the best fake of a smile she could muster, Weiss responded.  
  
“Greetings father, as I soon won’t be able to spare much time in as I prepare for this semester's exams, I thought it an opportune moment to inform you about my progress at Beacon Academy.”  
  
“Well is that so?”, he asked a slight hint of what Weiss took as doubt on his face, “Then what about the fact that a lowly Faunus is the leader of your team?”  
  
“Well first and foremost it must be acknowledged that miss Rose graduated Signal at the age of 15, which tells alot about her talent and dedication. Furthermore, she managed to get rid of over twenty Beowulfs with a single strike during initiation. But even with those accomplishments and the fact that she was chosen to lead our team, I feel the need to point out that with all her talent for fighting, if I had not been tutoring her, she would probably be failing many of the more theoretical classes, to say nothing of her poor social skills.”  
  
While she took a short breath and sip from the glass of water standing next to her, her father inquired, “I think that is enough talk about that Faunus, how have you done so far?”  
  
“I have been receiving only the best possible grades in any examination so far, be they theoretical or practical. And as a team we are currently the highest ranked freshmen, even eclipsing the four time Mistral champion Pyrrha Nikos and her team.”  
  
Hearing those words what appeared to be a smile graced her father's lips as he answered.  
  
“Well then at least everything else is going as I expected of you. Anything else you want to inform me about?”  
  
“No father, thank you for your time.”  
  
After that her father ended the call, Weiss let out a deep sigh of relief, before looking up the number of the base Winter was currently staying at before dialing it up and waiting for it to connect.  
  
Soon it was picked up the screen revealing a communications officer in the standard issue white and black uniform of the Atlas military.  
  
“Greetings madam, how can we help you?”, he asked, surprisingly friendly.  
  
“Hello, I wanted to talk to my sister, Winter Schnee, would that be possible?”, Weiss asked, her whole posture more relaxed than when she had been talking with her father.  
  
“Give me a moment to inquire if Specialist Schnee is available at the moment.”, he replied before turning to a different monitor where he typed in a short inquire before he turned back towards Weiss.  
  
“You are in luck, Specialist Schnee is currently off duty, I will forward your call to her terminal.”  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
True to his word the screen soon changed to display her sister sitting before her.  
  
What Weiss had not expected was the rather casual attire her sister was currently wearing, seeing as she was only wearing a simple white shirt and the silver rose pendant she had inherited from their grandfather Eis.  
  
“Hello Weiss, why did you call me?”, she asked, a warm smile on her lips at the sight of her little sister.  
  
“Winter there’s something I need to talk about with someone, and you're the only one I trust not to tell anyone else.”, Weiss explained, all the confusion she had pushed back to talk with her father crashing back over her.  
  
Picking up on the confusion her sister’s mimik seemed to practically scream, Winter’s own expression turned from joyful to concerned. “Well what got you this worried?”  
  
“Can you first promise me not to tell anyone please?”  
  
“Of course. I Winter Schnee hereby promise not to disclose the matter you wish to discuss with me to any Human or Faunus, is that good enough for you sister?”, During this, Winter had been holding her Pendant in her right hand, while the left was held up, palm facing towards the screen.  
  
Taking a relieved breath after her sister's words Weiss spoke up. ”That is more than enough. See I called because of some secrets my team mates revealed to my early this morning and I just don’t know how to feel about them.”  
  
At those words, Winter leaned forward, unsure how to ease her sister’s mind without the ability to touch her.”Well I already promised not to tell anyone, so what disturbing things did they tell you?”  
  
“Blake showed us that she actually is a Faunus and she told us that”, Weiss stopped for a moment, deliberating if she should tell Winter about the White fang or not. Deciding to trust her sister she continued, “And that she had been a member of the White Fang.”  
  
The older sibling took a moment to think over her response, but soon replied as Weiss was not continuing for now.  
  
“Well I think that if the Headmaster allowed her a second chance, after all I don’t think Ozpin would not know about her past, so you should judge her based on what she did since then, not what she did before she started training to protect Humanity from the Grimm.”  
  
This got Weiss thinking for a moment, because what her sister told her to do was the same thing she had wanted from her fellow students. To be judged for who she was, not how she was born. After all she decided to become a Huntress to improve opinions about her family which were tarnished by her father's actions.  
  
“Now I believe you spoke about multiple things they revealed to you so what else is bothering you Weiss?”  
  
“Well this may sound a bit crazy, but please hear me out. See Ruby Rose, my team’s leader, had claimed that she was A Faunus hiding some scars behind a Beowulf mask on her face. But if I understood them right this morning, Bake had found her playing with a pack of Beowulfs like they were little dogs.”; taking another short ip of water, Weiss looked at her sister, who looked less surprised than she had expected, “After that she told us how she was part Beowulf and even showed us some bone protrusions on her arm framed by dark red fur. And I have now idea how to react to that,I mean how could I, I didn’t even think things like that were possible.”, As Weiss had buried her head in her hands, she did not see how instead of shock or horror, Winter’s expression seemed to be completely neutral.  
  
“Again, I don’t think that just because she kept that from you, she is suddenly a different person than the one you shared classes with for over half a Semester. If you are uncomfortable with any of that just talk to them when you are back at Beacon.”  
  
Looking back up, Weiss managed a small smile as she replied,”Thank you for talking this through with me, now how are you doing yourself?”  
  
This Question heralded a change in their conversation, which moved on from confusing revelations to two sisters talking again after far to long.  
  
Just as they were about to end the call, Weiss remembered a small request Ruby had made during their first game night all those months ago.  
  
“One last thing Winter. Do you still have those Dusttech time of conflict rulebooks? One of my teammates asked about them a while ago.”  
  
“Yes I think I do, would you like me to send them to you?”  
  
“That would be lovely. I hope you enjoyed this talk as much as I do, but I think I should return to my team now.”  
  
“Well then goodbye sister.”  
  
With that the call ended and after thanking the employees for letting her use the meeting room, Weiss made her way back to Beacon.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby had been afraid of how her team would take it when she was finally forced to reveal her secret to them. But with Blake sitting with the two sister at Breakfast right now, she had realized that most of those fears had been unfounded. After all neither Blake nor Weiss had attacked her or run away in a panic. But what worried her a bit was how Weis had yet to join them for Breakfast even though the three of them were already finished eating.  
  
“Ruby could we go back to our room, I want to talk about what happened this morning a bit more.”, Blake said already standing up and taking her tray towards the return at the end of the cafeteria,  
  
“Sure, but I hope Weiss isn’t ill after all she hasn’t come to breakfast.”, the half Grimm replied and stood up, ”Yang are you coming?”  
  
“Nah I’m gonna have seconds and maybe Ice Queen does come here.”  
  
After hearing her Sister’s reply, Ruby returned her tray and followed the bow wearing Faunus back to their dorm.  
  
When they arrived, they saw that Weiss had finally left as well. Closing the door behind her, Ruby turned towards Blake, “Now what did you want to talk about exactly?”  
  
“First of all I want to apologize for how I reacted, after all people finding out I am a Faunus would at most get me some racist remarks, where as I can’t even think about what people might do to you if they were to find out what you are.”  
  
“Ah don’t sweat it, after all it was a bit hypocritical of me to suggest you stop hiding your ears, but even so that anger of yours was quite filling, so I don’t mind anyway.”  
  
Ruby responded, a wide grin spreading on her face as she thought back to how great her teammates anger had tasted.  
  
“Wait, how can my anger be filling? don’t tell me you feed on negative emotion like other Grimm?”, shaking her head to get those distractions out for now the cat Faunus continued,”No let's get back to what I wanted to talk about. I also wanted to thank you for introducing me to that Police Officer. For the first time since leaving the Fang I feel like I can actually do something to make up for the harm I caused.”  
  
“Well of course I eat emotions. And you don’t need to thank me for introducing you to Mr. Viridian, after all everyone deserves a chance to proof their not the monster others make them out to be. I just helped you find a good way to do so. I am more surprised you focused on that old cover story my dad came up and not the fact that I am literally one of the Monsters threatening to destroy civilization.”, Ruby said rubbing her neck.  
  
“Why would I think differently of you just because I now know what you are. I would like to be mad at you for hiding it from Weiss and me, but then I did something similar myself.”  
  
With that Blake walked back towards the oor, turning back to Rub before actually opening it, “Now, I think there is one other teammate of ours I need to talk to about my past as well so how about we go find Weiss?”  
  
Following the Cat Faunus out of the dorm, the half grimm spoke up once more,”Okay, but let’s meet up with Yang first so she can help us find her.”  
  
After meeting up with the blonde brawler as suggested, they searched the Campus for most of the morning, until they finally found her stepping out of an airship coming from Vale.  
  
As team RWBY came together, both Weiss and Blake spoke up.  
  
“Hey we need to talk.”  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~


	15. Chapter Veertien

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter veertien

  
A day later, Team RWBY had received official notification that they had been requested for a mission by the Vale Police Department. It told them to arrive at noon next friday for their official briefing at the VPD main station. From then on the week could not have been over fast enough for Ruby, as the whole team was excited for working their first mission nearly a Semester before the rest of the Freshmen would get the opportunity to do so.  
  
When the end of the week finally had arrived, the four girls were making their way to the airship landing, hoping to catch one of the earliest transports to Vale so they had enough time to arrive even if they were to run into trouble or distractions on the way.  
  
“Weiss” Blake started to apologize once more as they stepped out of the airship that carried them to the city “I just wanted to say again how much I regret what I helped the White Fang do to you and your Family, and-”.  
  
“Blake, ” Weiss interrupted the Faunus, a hint of annoyance leaking into her voice, “I understood you were sorry after the first few times, so I don’t need to hear it every other day. Besides you are here to make up for all that and bring these Good for nothing Criminals down, so please stop apologizing.”  
  
Behind the talking pair, Ruby and Yang stepped out onto the pavement, Ruby turning to follow the white and black haired girls, while Yang started to go the other direction, waving to the rest of the Team.  
  
“See you guys later at the station,” the blonde quickly shouted before rushing down a side alley.  
  
“Where is she going?” Weiss asked, looking after their Teammate confused.  
  
“Don’t worry Weiss, Yang’s just excited to take her motorbike for a ride.” The half Grimm explained as she caught up to the rest of her team, “Now come on, the police station is this way.”  
  
With that the girls left the skyport and made their way through the city of Vale, taking in the sights and managing to move swiftly through the streets, at least until Blake suddenly stopped.  
  
“Could we step in this shop real quick? My uncle owns it and I haven’t seen him in a while.” Blake asked, gesturing at a store as they passed it.  
  
Stopping beside her, Ruby took a look at the shop Blakewas indicating. The writing on the storefront window proclaimed the small shop to be ‘Tukson’s Book Trade’. Through the window the half Grimm saw shelves lined with enough books that the slogan ‘Home to every book under the sun’ might actually be true. Turning to the cat Faunus, the wolf eared girl replied: “Why not, I mean we should have more than enough time, right Weiss? Besides I still need to get this week’s X-ray and Vave.”  
  
Checking her scroll for the time, Weiss answered, “Yes we indeed have about half an hour before we would need to hurry up. Besides with a slogan like this, they might actually sell some of the books I’ve been looking for.”  
  
With the whole team in agreement, the three girls entered the shop, a small bell behind the door chiming softly as they stepped in the seemingly empty store.  
  
“Be right there”, a male voice called from the back of the shop.  
  
“Ruby. he normally keeps the comics over there at the front.” Blake explained, pointing to a decent selection of comic books on display. As she looked through the comics to find the new issues, the wolf eared girl heard Weiss talking to the owner after Blake vanished behind a different set of bookshelves.  
  
“Hello sir, I was intrigued the slogan on your window, and was wondering if you had some old fighting treatise or copies there of for sale, maybe even a Fechtbuch from Blut Rose herself?” Weiss was asking, her voice sounding not unlike Ruby’s own when she was talking about new weapon ideas.  
  
“Well I don’t have any here in the store, but I can some for you by next friday, maybe two weeks from now if you want specific ones. But they will cost you more than a few Lien.” the man behind the counter replied.  
  
“Don’t worry about that, the price will not be a problem. No one I’ve asked has been able to find one that was even for sale, so if you can get me one I’ll happily pay the price.”  
  
As the conversation turned towards the modalities of payment, Ruby’s eyes fell onto a comic she had not expected to see until next tuesday. There, sitting right next to the issue of X-Ray and Vave she had been looking for, was next week's issue of Camp Camp. Taking it along with the comic she had been looking for, the half Grimm began to make her way over to the counter. To her surprise the moment he laid eyes on her the man behind the counter began shouting at her angrily.  
  
“Why are you wearing your mask out in public girl?? Do you want the police to throw you into prison?” The shopkeeper shouted.  
  
“Why would they do that?” Ruby asked, slightly confused as she stepped closer to the counter, noticing the cat like scent coming from the man for the first time, “I mean just because I have wolf ears and wear a Grimm mask doesn’t make me a member of the White Fang, does it?”  
  
“You may not be, but do you expect the police to care enough to ask about that?”  
  
“Yes,” Ruby simply stated, “And if they don’t I do have a police officer's number. And he would vouch for me.” Finally reaching the counter, Ruby placed the two comics she had carried with her on top of it. Hoping to change the topic of their conversation, Ruby asked:  
  
“So how much for those two?”  
  
“That will be 8 Lien please.” Tukson replied, dropping the topic of their conversation as well.  
  
As Ruby started checking which of her belt pouches contained her wallet, Blake stepped up to the counter, a new book in her hand and a soft smile on her lips as she greeted the Faunus standing behind the counter.  
  
“Hi uncle Tukson, how have you been?”  
  
“Oh Blake, how nice to see you again,” he replied, his face softening from the angry expression left from his conversation with the half Grimm, “I have been well, but a certain little mask wearing Faunus is making me worry the police will come knocking any moment now,” he answered, looking at Ruby wearily, who had just finished fishing out the 8 lien for her comics.  
  
“So you saw Ruby already? Please don’t worry about her, she has some bad scars she is hiding beneath the mask. Which as far as I know was a gift from her late mother.” Blake explained, hoping to calm her Uncle and cover for Ruby at the same time.  
  
“Well it was nice meeting you sir, but I believe my teammates and I have to be somewhere soon, which means we need to leave now.” Weiss spoke up, forgotten about by the two Faunus and one half Grimm at the counter. Placing a business card with a prominent snowflake in the center on the counter, she continued, “So, when you do get the books I ordered please inform me, my contact information is on this card.”  
  
With that the other two girls said goodbye to the shopkeeper and followed Weiss out off the shop. When the girls had left, Tukson picked up the card left by the white haired girl, his mouth gaping open as he read who he had just been talking to.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby, Weiss and Yang were waiting in a conference room on the second floor of the VPD’s main station, hoping that Blake would soon be finished with giving her initial Statement against the White Fang soon. Because as soon as she arrived, the team would be briefed on what role they would play to actually help the police to deal with the White Fang.  
  
As she had finished her Comics roughly half an hour ago, Ruby had moved some chairs and a table to make some space, where she had started going through some mild hand to hand training with her sister. Just a Ruby had managed to pin Yang to the ground for the first time today, the door opened to let Blake and Officer Viridian step inside. The police officer sat down at the head of one of the tables still in place, his badge hanging over a lime green shirt.  
  
“Oh hello Officer Viridian”; Ruby greeted cheerfully as she let go of Yang and helped the blond standing up before the two of them sat down as well.  
  
“Hello miss Rose. Now, for the two of you who don’t know me yet, I am Detective Gruoni Viridian. I am currently leading the anti White Fang task force in the Vale PD. As you are all aware, you are not just here so we could take your teammates statement,” he said, gesturing towards Blake, who had sat down next to Weiss, “you are also here to help us with actual investigations and operations against those terrorists.”  
  
“So what will we be doing to assist your men?”, Weiss asked.  
  
“Well, as Junior detectives you are authorized to stop any illegal activities you witness, but your official tasks will probably vary from one operation to the next,” He said. The Detective then handed each of the girls a simple badge, “But for now, welcome to the task force.”  
  
Examining her badge, Ruby was reminded of how she had been brought to this very station every other week by Beacon students working for the police just like they were now.  
  
“We already have the first operation you will take part in set up for later today,” Veridian said, pulling out his scroll and activating a projector on one of the walls. It was displaying a map of Vale’s harbour, and a single pier highlighted in red.  
  
“Today, a large shipment of Dust from the SDC arrived on pier 73. As miss Belladonna informed us that one of the bigger Dust robberies we initially ascribed to Roman Torchwick was actually carried out by the White Fang, we are going to monitor that shipment until tomorrow, when it will be distributed by train throughout the Kingdom. We are pretty sure that either torchwick or the White Fang will try to get the shipment when it is still all in one place.  
  
To catch them red handed, we will be positioning rapid response teams in bullheads at these locations.”, 4 locations where now highlighted in green, all close to the red pier, but judging on the Buildings visible on the map hidden from most observation from people at the dock, “You will be ‘hanging out’ at the docks, as soon as you notice any suspicious activities involving the Dust shipment, you dial this number”, Above the Map a short scroll Number was displayed, “and the closest response team will arrive at your position within minutes, calling in the rest if necessary,” he said, pausing for the Huntresses in training to save the number in their Scrolls.  
  
“Now do you have any questions?”  
  
As Ruby raised her hand, Gruoni gestured for her to speak up.  
  
“How much fighting are we allowed or expected to do?” Ruby asked.  
  
“Well, as long as no one dies you should be fine to use whatever force is necessary, but if you get overwhelmed do not hesitate to fallback after alerting the rest of us. Anything else?”  
  
While the other three students were shaking their heads, Weiss raised her hand and spoke up, “Do we have time to make a short top on our way over to pier 73? I heard the students from Shade would be arriving in Vale for the Vytal Festival today and I wanted to welcome them to this Kingdom.”  
  
The Detective took a moment to think the question over before nodding “Well if you don’t take too long, it should be fine.”  
  
“Well then we will be quick.” Weiss said.  
  
With no other questions to ask, Officer Viridian escorted the girls back outside, assuring Yang that she was allowed to keep her Bike at the station for the night.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
While team RWBY was walking towards the harbour where the students from Vacuo would be arriving,, Blake thought about all the questions she had been asked. Most were rather obvious, like the locations of any hideouts or safe houses she could remember, who the higher ups were, and so on. Others were less obvious; how had the food supply been, how old the average member had been, things like that.  
  
“Hey, stop that Faunus!” The cat Faunus was ripped from her thoughts by a shout, quickly bringing a hand up to her ears to make sure her bow was still in place.  
  
Relieved that the shout should not have referred to her, Blake looked round and soon saw a Monkey Faunus hanging from a lamppost by his tail, casually eating a Banana as two cops shouted at him. As soon as he had finished his snack, the blond Faunus boy threw the peel of the fruit at one of the policemen standing beneath him before jumping over them and starting to run away.  
  
As he ran past Team RWBY he gave a wink to Blake, just before he was concealed from view by a cloud of rose petals. When they settled down, Ruby had forced him to his knees, one foot applying pressure on his tail while her right hand held the boy's arm behind his back her left forcing his face up soe he looked into her bone covered face.  
  
“Hey, not cool! I thought you White Fang jerks were all pro Faunus, why- Augh!” He was interrupted by Ruby leaning more onto his tail and pressing her thumb into his hand.  
  
“I am not one of those Criminals,” Ruby calmly replied, “How about you wait here until the nice policemen catch up?”  
  
“But then why do you wear that mask?”, he barely managed to get out as his teeth were clenched from the pain inflicted by the little redhead.  
  
“That is none of your business,” Ruby replied, slightly riled up by the question.  
  
Before the conversation could go any further, the police finally caught up to them and as one took the captured Faunus from Ruby’s hands the other began taking to her, “Thanks miss Rose, i hope you and your friends have a pleasant afternoon.”  
  
“We sure will officer.”, the half Grimm replied as the police turned to bring the monkey faunus in.  
  
“Nice to see there are at least some decent Faunus.”, Blake could barely overhear one of the officers mumble to himself.  
  
“Well that was unexpected,” Yang commented, “Now come on, we have somewhere to be.” With that Yang began to lead the way towards their destination which they finally reached about half an hour later.  
  
After a short discussion, the team hid themselves atop the shipping containers. If some the White Fang did arrive, Blake and Ruby would jump in first, hoping to talk them down long enough for reinforcements to arrive as they were, or at least appeared to be, Faunus themselves. If it was not the Faunus terrorists, Yang and Weiss would join the fray immediately as well, otherwise they would stand back and make sure no terrorist escaped until the police arrived.  
  
Then team RWBY waited, some more patiently than others, until shortly after nightfall a Bullhead landed between the containers, members of the White Fang, as evidenced by the masks and uniforms they wore, spilling out to secure the area.  
  
Blake took a moment to take her scroll and dial the number to alert the rest of the operation as planned. Ready to jump in and try to talk her fellow Faunus down, the cat eared girl looked down to search for a suitable landing spot. But who she saw in the center of the group of criminals directing the Faunus around him made her blood boil. Jumping down she landed silently behind Roman Torchwick, pulling Gambol Shroud’s blade with her right hand and holding it against his throat, while she removed her bow with the left. Looking around to the other Faunus standing around Blake raised her voice before she spoke up, “Brothers and Sisters of the White Fang why are you helping this human?”  
  
“Didn’t you get the memo? the ‘fang and I are going in for a joint business venture.” Roman snarked, apparently unfazed by the weapon at his neck.  
  
“BLAKE, get back!” Hearing her leader’s shouted order, Blake reacted as fast as she could, jumping back as a white Glyph appeared between her and the thief. before her feet touched the ground again, an explosion blossomed on the other side of the Glyph, rocketing Roman forward, as the suit clad criminal had not expected the small explosive to be stopped by the floating circle.  
  
While the cat Faunus was still trying to process what just happened, a pair of Gunshot rang out from where her team was still standing in short succession. The first knocking Romans cane like weapon out of his hand while the second heralded the approach of a wolf eared redhead followed by a trail of rose petals.  
  
As Ruby landed in front of Roman, the thief began talking once more, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was unarmed before the scythe wielder, “Hello Red, how nice of you to join us,” he said sarcastically,”How do always meet me at the worst possible times?”  
  
“Stand down Torchwick and no one has to get hurt”, Ruby proclaimed, Scythe held ready to defend herself if any of the Faunus were to attack her.  
  
“Oh and let me guess then I should just confess all my crimes and be a good little inmate for the rest of my life?”, Roman continued,”Fat chance Red, men-”  
  
The Roaring of approaching Engines drowned out anything else Roman wanted to say.. When the Bull head came into view, and started illuminating the area with a pair of searchlights, Blake started to relax, their plan had worked well enough.  
  
As Sirens began to chime in the distance, Roman’s eyes widened and he called out to his men, “Crap, they’re with the Cops!, We need to run, Now!”  
  
But when the criminals tried to flee, they realized that there was no way for them to escape. Their Bullhead was scraped by what appeared to be a yellow meteor, which turned out to actually be an enthusiastic Yang, while the two ways out between the containers were blocked, the first one by a Wall of ice serving as the stand for Weiss Schnee, while the other was filled with Blake and Ruby, weapons ready to stop anyone trying to get past them.  
  
With the Police force dropping in from the Bullhead above, Roman Torchwick was caught with no way out for the first time in years.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
The debriefing for team RWBY had gone on for most of the night, but when it finally finished, the girls were allowed to use one of the resting rooms, normally used by officers on night shift, to sleep until early afternoon.  
  
While the rest of her team was asleep, Ruby came to a horrible realisation, which she shared with them as soon as they were all awake again.  
  
“Girls have any of you prepared something to play tonight?”  
  
After both Blake and Weiss confirmed the redheads fears that they might have to skip their weekly game night this week, Yang spoke up.  
  
“Well it’s no board game but I do know the owner of a nice club here in Vale who still owes me a favor, so if we have to miss tonight anyway, how about we at least have a nice evening.”  
  
“Sounds good”; Blake agreed.  
  
“Why not, it would be a new experience at least.”, Weiss said after a moment’s hesitation.  
  
“Ugh, fine”, Ruby said reluctantly.  
  
When they arrived at Junior's later that evening, Ruby nearly crashed into a raven haired woman in a red dress hurrying out of the club as the rest of the team made their way inside. As she walked off, Ruby could not help but feel she knew the woman from somewhere, but when she stepped inside after her sister she had new concerns.  
  
A respectable number of guns were pointed in Yang's face by gus in black suits with red ties. “Blondie, why are you here?”  
  
“Isn’t that obvious,” Yang said with a grin, completely unperturbed by the array of firepower directed towards her, “Me and my friends are here to have a good time, so don’t worry about getting your butt kicked again.”  
  



	16. Chapter Fifteen

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter fifteen

  
  
The small bell behind the front door of Tukson’s Booktrade chimed as Ruby rushed into the Store. The reason for her haste wasn’t that she would get her hands on the newest issues of her favourite comic books. No it came from the building pressure in her bladder, turns out that gorging yourself on hot chocolate before riding an airship without toilet to Vale was a bad idea.  
  
“Hey Tukson, can I use your restroom real quick?”, the redheaded half Grimm asked as she rushed towards the counter and the shop’s owner, who seemed bored with the obvious lack of customers this morning.  
  
“Customer’s are not allowed in the back where the staff restroom is even the most loyal ones like you. But my niece’s friend is welcome to visit me anytime. It’s the last door on the right.”, Tukson replied as he stepped aside, opening the door for the girl running past him, shouting him some thanks as she passed him.  
  
Entering the small restroom, Ruby was guessing how little regular customers Tukson already had, if she was able to rise to one of his most loyal ones during the remainder of the last semester. As she stepped out of the restroom after finishing her business, her canine ears picked up the faint sound of the bell behind the door, heralding the arrival of new customers.  
  
As she made her way back to the shop, she could hear them ask them about the availability of different books. As she stepped through the door behind Tukson, she could hear the shop owner speak: “We don’t carry that one I am afraid.”  
  
Looking over the three customers standing before the counter, she noted that all three of them were Faunus and wearing similar light grey hoodies. Two of them had tails hanging behind them, one a brown fox tail, the other a white lizard tail. The third one had a pair of rams horns on each side of his head. Deciding to help Blake’s uncle out, she spoke up as she stepped next to the counter.  
  
“Don’t worry I’m sure Tukson can get whatever book you are looking for if you give him some time.” As she finished, she looked at the three unfamiliar Faunus more closely to gauge their reaction, which let her notice the white masks all three of them were holding in their hands right now. They all seemed surprised to see the wolf eared girl standing next to the Faunus shop owner.  
  
“Sister why are you standing by that traitor?”, the horned boy asked as he put on his mask.  
  
“We were sent to deal with him today.”, the lizard tailed girl explained.  
  
“What do you mean ‘deal with’”, Ruby asked, typing a short message to Officer Viridian into her scroll under the counter, warning him about the White Fang at Tukson’s.  
  
“Well I guess you're just one of our young runners so let me explain. If someone betrays the White Fang we need to make them reconsider by roughing them up a bit or kill them if they still decide to go against us. Just wait outside girl, you don’t need to see this.”, the Ram horned boy said, stepping aside a bit to make room for Ruby to leave.  
  
Her suspicions confirmed, Ruby pressed the send button on her scroll before dropping it and drawing a Combat knife out of her right sleeve.  
  
“Well let me just correct you there”, the half Grimm replied as she moved closer to the first Faunus, the up to now silent fox tailed boy, “I am not a runner for the White Fang.”, Bringing a hand up, she tugged on the small chain around her neck to pull her badge out beneath her sweater.  
  
“And as a junior detective with the VPD I order you to stand down.”  
  
Seeing all three of the White Fang Faunus draw a pistol and point it roughly in her direction, Ruby couldn’t help but wonder if any criminal had ever complied with that order.  
  
With the fight starting, Ruby moved around the counter, confident that she could take the three Faunus, who seemed inexperienced with how they handled their weapons, even without Crescent Rose. Parrying the few bullets that came close to herself with the knife in her left, or dodging them, Ruby quickly closed the distance between herself and the closest of the three attackers. With a quick kick to his shin, the furry tailed boys surprisingly weak Aura breaks under her Grimm like strength, before he fell over and was knocked out as his temple hit one of the nearby bookshelfs.  
  
Noticing the other two Faunus reloading, the redhead sped towards them with her Semblance and, before they finished reloading, pulled the ram horned boy into a chokehold and between herself and the lizard tailed girl.  
  
While she applied pressure on the boy’s Aura, the girl before her was unsure what to do, until she was knocked out by a smack over the head with an encyclopedia from Tukson. Shortly after that, the ram Faunus’ Aura finally broke as well, allowing Ruby to knock him out as well. With all the hostile Faunus on the ground, Ruby returned to the counter, sheathing her knife again before she picked up her scroll. Seeing that she had received a new message from officer Viridian, she opened it to to read ‘Ok, sending a patrol over there.’  
  
Putting it back into her pocket, the half Grimm turned towards Tukson.  
  
“Ok the police should already be on their way here. But none of that was why I came here, do you have the new issues for me?”  
  
Surprised by how the wolf tailed girl switched topics suddenly, the Faunus shop owner needed a moment to collect himself before he could answer.  
  
“Sure, they are in a small bag behind the counter with your name on it. Just take it yourself, after all you’re already standing there.”  
  
“OK”, bending down behind the counter, Ruby quickly finds the correct bag and stands back up, “So 4 Lien each right?”  
  
“Not this time”, Tukson replied as he walked to one of the shelfs damaged by the attackers wild shots, “Those two are on the house for what you just did for me, those thugs could have been a real problem had I been on my own.”  
  
As Ruby was about to vocalize her gratitude, the door opened once more as a man clad in a black suit with a red tie stepped inside. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of red sunglasses, so Ruby couldn’t tell his full reaction to the three unconscious bodies lying around, but by the twitch in his lips she thought he was quite surprised. After the man took a moment to process what he saw, he stepped towards the counter, behind which Ruby was still standing.  
  
“Hello I am looking for some basic training manuals for my nephew, do you have any books like that?”  
  
“Well, I don’t actually work here, but I would recommend you ‘How to get your sorry as ready for Combat School’ from Qrow Branwen and Onyx Purpura. But to buy it you’ll need to talk with Tukson over there.”, Ruby replied before pointing towards the shop owner who was assessing the damages to his merchandise at the moment.  
  
When the man turned towards Tukson, Ruby herself moved closer towards the door, where she waited for the police to arrive, keeping an eye on the currently unconscious Faunus.  
  
She was tempted to start reading her new comics, but without something to tie the White Fang members up, the half Grimm didn’t want to risk anything by taking her eyes of them.  
  
A few minutes later, the suit clad customer was leaving, carrying a bag filled with his purchases. Shortly after that, a pair of policemen entered the shop. the first of the two saw Ruby standing at the door, and once he noticed the badge hanging from her neck, he decided to address her first.  
  
“What’s the situation here?”  
  
“These three”, she waved towards the unconscious bodies,”claimed to be members of the White Fang and that they were sent here to deal with the Shop owner, Tukson, who is back over there, assessing the damage to his shop. When they started threatening him and pulled out guns, I informed Officer Viridian of the situation before revealing my badge and asking them to stand down. But when they attacked, I knocked them out one by one, which was surprisingly easy with how weak their Auras were.”, while the officer speaking with Ruby was taking notes of everything she told him, his partner was handcuffing the unconscious Faunus.  
  
“Well that is a nice overview for now, however you’ll need to come with us to the station for a full debriefing.”  
  
Nodding in understanding, Ruby helped the two officers to fit the slowly reawakening Faunus into their car, before she and Tukson, who would give a statement as Witness, were led to the nearest police station by one of the officers.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
_The young Mechhuntress of Tribe Branwen had never been happier about her Executioners Dust-Servo-Acceleration System than in this very moment. To avoid detection and stay behind cover, Rose needed to reach the base of the nearby hill as quick as possible. Normally a 95 ton war machine like her mech shouldn’t be able to move quick enough to achieve this. Luckily the DSA System allowed the girl to push the machines speed above its normal limitations at the minor risk of internal dame to the machinery inside the legs._  
  
Pressing the corresponding button on her left joystick and the pedals controlling the machines legs, Rose’s Executioner began to accelerate to nearly 90 km/h.  
  
**Rattle, rattle, clatter**  
  
_All seemed well for the first 30 meters or so, but then suddenly a series of alarms lit up on the various displays inside the cockpit, as the mech came to a sudden stop._  
  
**Rattle, rattle, clatter**  
  
_Rose barely managed to stop her warmachine from falling over with its newly broken leg servos. Distracted by this, she did not notice the enemy mech that was approaching her position until it got ready to attack her._  
  
**Rattle, rattle, clatter**  
  
_Instead of firing any of its weapons though, her enemy continued moving towards her, before it crashed into her mech’s left arm, which contained the rail gun that was her primary weapon. The impact was hard enough to bend one of the weapons capacitors, causing the whole weapon to explode, destroying the mech's arm and activating the auto-eject function, which fired Rose out of the cockpit, the sudden acceleration knocking her unconscious._  
  
**Rattle, rattle, clatter**  
  
_luckily for the young woman her parachute opened automatically as-”_  
  
“Finally I found you girls”, a voice from behind her cut of Weiss’ narration of what happened after Ruby screwed up the die roll for her Character. Turning around the Heiress saw a vaguely familiar Monkey Faunus, wearing an open shirt and a pair of blue jeans.  
  
“And why were you searching for us, who are you even?”, she asked, crossing her arms to make her annoyance at the interruption as obvious as possible.  
  
“Aren’t you that stowaway I caught on the docks during the Semester?”, Ruby inquired unsurely, turning around to face the newcomer as well.  
  
“Yup, that would be me”, the boy replied, “See I wanted to apologize for lumping you in with those no good White Fang idiots but until I saw you leave the police station today I had no idea how to find you. But now that I am here, sorry for yelling at you for helping the police.”  
  
“If you are that stowaway, how were you allowed to enter Beacon’s campus?”, Weiss asked, still displeased by the boy’s presence and the interruption to their game.  
  
“Well it would be hard for me to partake in class as one of the students send over from Haven if I weren’t allowed on Campus. besides I finished the last of my Community service this morning before I followed red here to Beacon.”  
  
“Well then would you mind letting us finish our game? you have said what you wanted.”, Weiss said harshly.  
  
“Ok, sheesh. Well see you around Campus I presume”, the boy finished, winking at Blake just like he did at the docks. He then made his way around the girls table, and whispered into Something to Blake's bow before he left them alone for good.  
  
“Now where was I?”, the Heiress asked the rest of ehr team.  
  
“I think we were about to know if we or the enemy are closer to Rose’s landing spot.”  
  
“Well then,  _As the parachute slowed her descent, Rose was tracked by Shroud and Cecilia as they hope to save their friend before the enemy captured her ...._ ”


	17. Chapter Sedecim

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter sedecim

  
Yang was walking through Forever Fall Forest, wearing a thick jacket to ward of the cold winter air. She was not quite sure why Ruby wanted to meet up for stargazing in the middle of their winter break, but who was the blonde to just say no to her sister. And so she had set out during this nice winter evening, clear skies above her revealing the lights of the stars, making her way to the small clearing near the edge of Forever Fall the half Grimm had told her to meet up. As she entered the clearing, she checked the time on her scroll. Seeing as she was still a few minutes early, Yang leaned against a nearby tree to wait for her Sister.  
  
Soon she heard twigs snapping and leaves crunching under feet, heralding a new arrival to the clearing. Turning around, it was not her sister who was approaching her, but Weiss, wearing just her normal outfit like she had done all Semester, only adding a simple scarf to ward of the cold. While Yang was still wondering how Weiss was not freezing right now, Blake lept from the branches of a nearby tree between the humans, wearing a long mantle either a dark violet or outright black, Yang was unable to tell in the little light shed by the moon.  
  
“So Ruby invited you to do some stargazing as well I guess?” Yang asked the two new arrivals.  
  
“Stargazing? I was told we we would perform a low light exercise so we could get better used to Ruby and Blake directing us thanks to their near perfect night vision,” Weiss huffed arms crossed before her chest.  
  
“Well Ruby told me that we were going to practice navigating the forest at night, so-” Blake’s bow twitched for a moment as she paused mid sentence, “There is someone approaching from the Forest.” the Cat Faunus continued as she moved her hand to Gambol Shroud's grip while pointing towards the other edge of the clearing for the humans sake.  
  
“Let’s hope it is our leader so she can explain this to us.”  
  
Soon, Yang could also hear something approaching the clearing through the underbrush, or probably even multiple somethings. Seeing Blake drawing her weapon, Yang quickly deployed Ember Cecilia as Weiss drew her rapier. Hoping that it was Ruby’s pack of Beowulf surrounding them and not some other Grimm or wild animals, they stayed put for now.  
  
Shortly after their half Grimm team leader stepped into the clearing from where all the sounds of movement had come, her tail wagging behind her in excitement.  
  
“Hey guys, glad you all came!” Ruby exclaimed cheerfully, the hood over her head the only concession to the cold temperatures, “But could you put your weapons away? They’re making the Beowulfs nervous.”  
  
“What is going on here?”, Weiss asked as she lowered Myrtenaster, “Why did you give each of us a different reason to come here?”  
  
“Well I hoped that if I told you all to come here but lied about the reason,” Ruby tried to explain, tapping her index fingers together nervously, “you all would get angry with me once you learned the truth.” As she finished, the two bulges in her hood made by her ears shrunk a bit.  
  
“Why would you want us to get angry?” the cat Faunus asked confused.  
  
“See over the break so far there were no students wandering through the Forests around Beacon.” Ruby answered sheepishly, while rubbing her neck, “which means my pack is starting to starve, as none of us want to eat that strange sap more than once.”  
  
Yang could not believe what her sister was saying; the cute little girl before her, whom she trusted implicitly, had lied to her just so she could feed her monstrous pets.  
  
“Did I hear that right Rubes? You asked is to come here just so we could act as food dispensers for your little monsters?” Yang shouted, her eyes turning Crimson with her rising fury.  
  
“Yes?” the wolf eared girl replied meekly, getting ready to run for safety if it became necessary. Which it did just moments later as Yang charged at her sister, stopping herself at the last moment before her fist would have made contact with Ruby’s face. While the blonde backed away, starting to recite some of the Calming Mantras she had learned from professor Peach to herself, Blake and Weiss began to murmur to each other.  
  
“Well it seems Ruby’s plan has succeeded fully with her sister.”  
  
“But won’t that attract more Grimm than Ruby’s pack?”  
  
What made it really hard for Yang to calm herself though, was the red haired girl standing before her, poking the blonde every now and then while literally asking her to not calm down yet.  
  
Some time later, (Yang wasn’t quite sure how long as she had been focusing on her heartbeat and breath) she finally calmed down enough to trust herself with interacting with her sister once more. Opening her now lilac eyes, she saw Ruby standing before her, a wide grin on her face. Before the elder sister could say a thing, the half Grimm had already enveloped her in a tight hug.  
  
“Thank you Yang! That should keep them until class trips into the forest start up again.”  
  
“Your welcome I guess?” Yang said, unsure how to react to being praised for being good Grimmfood. Looking around, the blonde noticed that both Weiss and Blake had moved closer to the two sisters while Yang had applied professor Peach’s lessons.  
  
“Oh, I also wanted all of you to meet some people.” Ruby said, before she let out a sharp bark  **“[come]”**  
  
Like a pack of well trained dogs, about 15 Beowulfs stepped into the clearing stopping in a rough circle around team RWBY, while more could be seen just behind the first trees.  
  
While everyone but Ruby readied their weapons, the half Grimm glared at the nearest Grimm, all of whom rolled onto their backs in submission.  
  
“Now come on, they really like belly rubs you know,” the redhead informed her teammates as she stepped closer to one of the wolf like creatures and began petting it.  
  
After a moment of hesitation, Yange decided to trust her sister and stepped up to one of the Grimm as well. Holding out her hand carefully, like she would do to unfamiliar dogs, she waited until it had sniffed it before actually touching it. Soon her hand wandered to its belly, like her sister had suggested, moving through the dark, silky fur, and she was reminded of Zwei. So, she began scratching the beast behind its ears with her other hand. Judging by the Grimm’s tail, which was wagging like Ruby’s when she got to eat fresh Cookies, Yang thought she was doing something right.  
  
It took a bit more time, and more than a little encouragement by the half Grimm, but a few minutes later, Weiss and Blake began interacting with the Grimm around them as well. All in all it was a night the three non-Grimms would not forget anytime soon.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
The remainder of their winter break had passed by rather peacefully, much to the enjoyment of Weiss who used the time to study the old fencing techniques illustrated in the books she had bought from Tukson.  
  
Sadly, Weiss was mostly alone in this opinion, and so after antics between Yang and Nora had escalated, the heiress had been forced to participate in a food fight between teams RWBY and JNPR. To be fair it could have been much worse, she did get to try out a few of the new/old techniques suggested for use with her improvised weapon. As it turned out, a swordfish was a surprisingly efficient stand in for a real sword. In the end they even ‘won’ the fight but now all of them were covered in bits and pieces of food.  
  
On their way to the dorms Weiss saw an older capital airship from Atlas headed for Beacon, accompanied by what seemed to be her sisters personal airship. Excited by the prospect of seeing Winter in person, she grabbed her team leader and dragged her along at a pace much faster than before.  
  
‘They should be here in about 45 minutes’ Weiss thought, ‘giving me just enough time to get me and Ruby presentable again.’ After grabbing a change of clothes for each of them, they moved on towards the showers.  
  
“Weiss what got you so excited? And could you please stop dragging me along?”, Ruby complained when they reached the showers.  
  
“I just saw my sister’s airship approach Beacon, and I want to greet her as soon as possible and introduce her to my team leader.”, Weiss answered while she got ready to step into one of the shower cabin.  
  
“Okay,” Ruby answered as she started to undress as well.  
  
When they both stepped out of the shower, Weiss started to regret her decision to drag Ruby along, as there was more fur on the half Grimms body than she expected, and getting it dry took a surprising amount of time. Despite this, they arrived at the docks just before the ramps of the Atlesian aircraft began to lower.  
  
While Ruby was staring open mouthed at the Gun emplacements of the warship, the white haired girl was looking over the arriving people from Alas, searching for her sister. While the occupants of the smaller airship took a while to leave their craft, the larger was letting out a stream of students. After the first few Teams of students had disembarked, Winter Schnee stepped out of her own airship, followed by a pair of Atlesian knights, androids designed to bolster the ranks of the Atlesian military.  
  
Seeing her sister, Weiss pushed through the crowd of students that had gathered to greet her sister.  
  
“Hello Winter, I am surprised that you are here so suddenly. nonetheless I would like to welcome you to Beacon.”  
  
“Greetings Weiss, I am here in the place of general Ironwood, who wanted to attend this Vytal tournament himself for classified reasons, which now fall onto me to carry out.” the elder Schnee replied, her voice perfectly neutral until she continued with a softer tone, “How have you been Weiss? And who is that girl behind you?”  
  
“I am doing quite well, I even obtained a pair of fencing treatise I studied over the break.” Weiss replied before she pushed Ruby next to herself.  
  
“And this is my team's leader, Ruby Rose.”  
  
“It is an honor to meet you L- Teamleader Rose.” Winter replied and, to the immense shock of the younger Schnee, curtsied towards the young half Grimm.  
  
‘Wait did Winter just curtsy before Ruby?’ Weiss thought shocked, ’She never does that, not even for father’s Business partners’  
  
Not aware of her sister’s confusion, Winter continued her conversation with Ruby.  
  
“I hope my sister hasn’t caused you any discomfort or problems.”  
  
“Greetings Specialist Schnee,” Ruby replied, her attempt at bowing made somewhat ridiculous by the tail wagging behind her. “And no, your Sister has been an excellent teammate so far.”  
  
Nodding in approval at this information, Winter handed Ruby what seemed to be a simple business card, featuring the same snowflake emblem Weiss had on most of her things with a silver rose crossing over it. “That is excellent. If you ever desire my assistance yo- miss Rose, just call this number. Now may I spend sometime with my sister?”  
  
“Certainly,” Ruby replied as she put the card in one of her pouches.  
  
“Then we will take out leave now.” the elder Schnee said, bowing once more before the half Grimm. But before she could lead her younger sister away, Ruby spoke up once more, trying her best to channel her ‘inner Weiss’ to sound sufficiently prim and proper.  
  
“Very well, I will reconvene with you at a later, ah, juncture. But might I inspect the armaments of your ships more closely?”  
  
“Of course my- miss Rose, just show the card I gave you to the guards, they should let you on board.” The specialist replied, looking pointedly at the two soldiers guarding the ramp of the capital ship.  
  
As Weiss and Winter made their way to Beacon proper, the young half Grimm entered the Atlesian airship and began exploring. Thanks to the signs set up at regular intervals along all hallways it was surprisingly easy to find the way around on her own.  
  
When the wolf eared girl finally laid eyes on one of the canons beyond the door at the end of a hallway, Ruby rushed forward, even using her semblance in her impatience, until she crashed into an orange haired girl wearing a tan dress with green circuit-like detailing.  
  
“Ouch Sorry about that.”, Ruby apologized as she stood up, holding out a hand to help the other girl up while her ears flattened against her head.  
  
“It is alright, I did not sustain damage, and the drop in Aura levels is negligible in this non-combat situation,” the girl on the floor answered as she grasped Ruby’s hand with her own, a silver ring topped with a small metal rose catching the half Grimm’s eye.  
  
“You must be Ruby Rose, it is nice to meet you. I am Penny Polendina. It is interesting to meet a half Grimm like you.”  
  
“Wait how do you know my name? And what do you mean half Grimm?”, Ruby asked surprised and suspicious at the same time.  
  
“Well you look like the description Specialist Schnee got from her sister about her teammates a while ago, so I assumed you were the leader of team RWBY. And it is obvious -hic- what you are. Your face doesn’t have any noticeable seem like an actual mask, your ears are a 99% match to those of the average Beowulf and unless you wear gauntlets under your sleeves, the different pressure points during our impact would match up to a Beowulf's spikes projected onto a human sized arm.” The green eyed girl answered matter of factly.  
  
“You can’t tell anyone about this, please Penny.” Ruby pleaded the other girl, panicking at how the other girl deducted her species so easily.  
  
Penny tilted her head to the right in thought for a moment before continuing, “In that case, I should tell you a secret about myself as collateral to ensure our mutual secrecy, that is what Humans do in such situations yes?”  
  
Nodding at the other girl, the half Grimm watched as Penny looked around. After making sure no-one was around, the auburn haired girl pulled her sleeve up to her elbow, before she pulled a stretch of skin form her wrist towards her palm revealing the metal parts hidden beneath it to the now wide eyed half Grimm.  
  
“Wow these must be top of the line prosthetics! Can you explain to me how they work sometime?” Ruby asked excitedly, her fear about her own secret taking a back seat for the moment.  
  
“They aren’t prosthetics I am a robot ca-”  
  
“That can’t be, I clearly impacted a protective Aura when I crashed into you.”  
  
“Well as I was about to inform you I am the first artificial being capable of generating Aura.”  
  
Penny explained, only getting Ruby even more excited.  
  
“That’s so cool! I never heard about a robot with a soul before!” the wolf eared girl exclaimed, her tail wagging quick enough to audibly impact the wall next to her repeatedly, “We should hang out sometime, I could show you around Beacon.”  
  
“Why do you want to spend time with a machine like me?” Penny asked confused.  
  
“Well I once told my sister meeting new weapons is easier than meeting new people, and now I actually get a chance to do so! And anyway, you obviously are more than the parts you’re built from, I mean, you do have to be your own person to create an Aura right?”  
Ruby stuck out her hand to Penny, a cheery smile on her face as she continued. “So Friend, how about you tell me more about those cannons over there and I’ll show you around Beacon afterwards.”  
  
Processing what she just heard, Penny’s eyes seemed to literally light up with joy as she replied, “most certainly Friend Ruby!”  



	18. Chapter Jū Nana

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter jū nana  


  
Earlier this morning team RWBY had received a message telling them to report to the VPD’s main station, so now they were on an airship enroute to Vale. While Weiss and Blake used the time to review what their teachers had taught them over the first week of the new semester, Yang was looking at her sister with concerns. For a few days now, Ruby started to stare of into the distance from time to time, sometimes even in the middle of a conversation. What was strange about it was how Ruby always stared in the same direction, sometimes even turning her head around as her gaze unfocused. After making sure no one was around to overhear them except their teammates, Yang decided to finally ask her Sister what all that was about.  
  
“Hey Rubes whatcha looking at?” she asked as she stepped next to the half Grimm.  
  
It took a moment until Ruby turned towards her sister as she replied. “Well I can’t actually see it, but I think it should be Mountain Glenn.”  
  
“And why do you always look there lately?” The Blonde asked, her hands on her hips.  
  
Taking a short breath, Ruby leaned towards her sister and reduced her voice to a whisper the blonde had problems making out.  
  
“Whenever I had come to the mainland from patch, I could tell there was some source of great food over there. And recently it has just gotten so much more intense,I feel like I need to go there and gorge myself on all the negative feelings there.”  
  
“Well in that case,” Yang began as she put an arm around the redhead “We’ll just have to take a mission to mountain glen at the start of next month and find out what’s bothering you.”  
  
“Okay,” Ruby said as she enjoyed the half hug from her sister. They stood like that a few more minutes, the half Grimms gaze soon returning to the southeastern horizon, before their transport finally sat down in Vale.  
  
Turning towards her teammates, Ruby began to lead her team through the streets towards their destination. Much to their leaders displeasure, they had to pass by Tucson's shop without stepping in and seeing if her new order had arrived, as they were expected to arrive as soon as they could. But when they were about to cross a normally mostly deserted plaza, they saw a large crowd gathered, making crossing it more difficult than normal.  
  
As they made their way through the gathered people, the girls began to wonder why all of them were gathered her before a Stage with only a pair of shipping containers on them. But when a group of androids stepped out of the containers, and the hologram of a man in a white suit appeared, causing Weiss to recognise the event, although the timing felt off to her.  
  
“Oh it’s just the international unveiling of the new Atlesian knights.” Seeing Ruby stare at the robots in undisguised curiosity, the heiress continued “Now come on Ruby, I have both the schematics and the speech available for you to watch when we get back home.” With that they continued to wade through the crowd as the Hologramm introduced itself as General Ironwood. After clearing the crowd they arrived at the frontdesk of the VPD in minutes, and were quickly directed to enter a first story meeting room.  
  
After they sat down inside, they waited for a bit before Gruoni Viridian entered. After a short greeting, he sat down at the head of the table and began to address the girls.  
  
“I am sure you four are wondering why you were called here today.”  
  
As all four girls just nodded politely he continued.  
  
“The fact of the matter is, since we captured Torchwick and his White Fang helpers the terrorist groups activities have dropped significantly, the last crime they committed as far as we can tell was the altercation at a Bookstore miss Rose stopped. Since then not one crime seems to have been performed by a Faunus connected to the White Fang. Even the normal crime rates are starting to drop noticeably.”  
  
As he stopped to take a sip from his coffee, Blake spoke up.  
  
“So what does that have to do with us?”  
  
After he put his cup back down, the Police officer let out a short sigh before he answered.  
  
“Because of what I just said, the council has decided to dissolve the Anti White Fang task force, and limit the resources we may spent on additional assistance, meaning that your mission to assist our investigation has effectively been canceled as of now. Which also means I have to ask you to return the badges you got at the start of it.”  
  
While the other members of team RWBY handed their badges in, albeit somewhat reluctant in the case of Ruby, Blake spoke up her voice slightly raised.  
  
“So just because the White Fang is laying low for what, a month at most? We should stop investigating them or make sure they aren’t preparing for anything big?”  
  
lowering his gaze, the detective replied.  
  
“I don’t agree with the decision either, but I can’t do anything more about it than you. But when you find something out, I will be more than happy to let my fellow officers follow up on any lead you can give us, task force for it or not.”  
  
Hearing this, Blake gave up her badge as well.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
The girls spent their trip back to Beacon in near silence, all lost in their own thoughts about what they had been told. Once they closed the door of their dorm room behind them though, Ruby immediately spoke up.  
  
“So what are we going to do next about the White Fang?”  
  
Hearing this, Blake felt a smile growing on her lips, seeing as she wasn’t the only one unwilling to give up their work against the White Fang.  
  
“What do you mean next?” Weiss spoke up equally irritated as she seemed confused.  
  
“Did you not hear what detective Viridian said?”  
  
“I did,” Yang spoke up from where she sat on her bed. “and he clearly said he would follow up  _when_  we brought him new information, not _if_.”  
  
As she sat down on her own bed the heiress let out an annoyed huff before she continued.  
  
“Even so what can we do that neither we nor the police have tried before?”  
  
At this, Blake moved in between the three other girls.  
  
“We could try to infiltrate a recruitment meeting. After all I  _am_  a Faunus, and Ruby is close enough as long as they don’t try to force her to take off her ‘mask’.”  
  
Shortly after she finished, she felt the strong grip of her partners hand on her shoulder.  
  
“Sounds like a plan to me. But in case anything goes wrong, Weiss and I should be nearby to help you get out if you need back up.”  
  
“Let’s do this!” Ruby shouted excitedly in agreement.  
  
“Very well then,” Weiss agreed reluctantly, “When do you think the next such meeting will take place?”  
  
Scratching her head behind her ear, Blake took a moment to think about it before she replied.  
  
“I am not completely sure about it, but there is normally a semi secret code scratched into nearby walls to lead to new Recruits to the meeting place. When we arrive there, I should be able to find out when the next actual meeting will be.”  
  
“Well then let’s change into something more discreet and go find it.” Ruby said cheerfully already at her closet looking for a simpler outfit.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
A few hours later, the cat Faunus was leading the wolf eared girl through Vale’s industrial district, both of them wearing simple hoodies in their respective colors, and a black skirt with a red rose print for Ruby, while Blake went for a pair of simple black pants.  
  
For the last half hour or so, they had been following the directions given by claw like marks left on the walls of some buildings. Grateful that the code to lead in potential recruits had not changed, Blake soon spoke up.  
  
“The warehouse the meeting takes place in should be around this corner.”  
  
After Ruby nodded silently in response, they turned around the corner, Blake removing her bow to reveal her cat ears.  
  
Before the side entrance to the warehouse they could see a deer Faunus in a white west and a White Fang mask over his eyes. As they approached him, he took two similar masks out of a small box besides him holding out one for each girl when they reached him.  
  
Blake took the offered mask immediately and put it on, but Ruby looked up at the man and asked.  
  
“Can I keep my own on instead?”  
  
“No all initiates are supposed to wear these.” He said as he shoved the mask into the half Grimm’s hands.  
  
“Do you want to know why I am wearing this mask in public?” Ruby asked her voice laced with anger. “I cover my face with it so others don’t run away in terror at the scars some Human asshole gave me as a child. But that is not the only reason I finally agreed to come here tonight. Since my mother left us, my human father has been extremely hostile to our kind. The first time I brought a friend home who was like me? He punched him in the face hard enough eh landed on the other side of the street for having a tail. So if you don’t want me just because I prefer not to show my scars to strangers, I’ll just have to fight for my kind on my own!”  
  
Hearing the heated and emotional speech of the young girl before him the deer Faunus relented and let the two of them through the door. As they walked along the small empty corridor they found themselves in, the Cat Faunus lowered her voice enough that Ruby could barely make out the words and spoke.  
  
“How did you come up with that story, you normally are not such a good liar.”  
  
“That’s because I did tell the complete truth, the first time I led one of my black furred companions back home, dad caved in his face with his fist.”  
  
It took the cat Faunus a moment of shocked silence that the half-Grimm had been referring to the Grimm during her speech. And of course a Huntsman would slay a simple Beowulf in a single attack. But before she could continue the conversation, they had reached the warehouse main room, with about a dozen other Faunus already waiting before an empty stage.  
  
A few moments later the deer Faunus from outside stepped onto the stage.  
  
“Welcome brothers and sisters, don’T be discouraged by the fact that we are so few here today.” He began, speaking loud enough to be heard throughout the room before him.  
  
“Most of our members are preparing our next message to the oppressive humans controlling this city. But even then we need to help our fellow Faunus deal with this situation until we achieve lasting change.” Grabbing a stack of papers, he stepped down from the stage and began handing out the papers to the attendants.  
  
“We need to support the businesses of our fellow Faunus. we have also obtained enough food supplies to help the most unfortunate of us. Just because the humans want to paint us as nothing more than rabid beasts, does not mean we can ignore the plight of our fellow Faunus. On these, I have noted you the names and Addresses of Businesses that could need some volunteer helping them out a few evenings a week for free. I also noted the locations of where we maintain a few slightly hidden soup kitchens where your help in feeding your fellow Faunus would be very appreciated.”  
  
After he had handed each Faunus and Ruby a sheet of paper, he took to the stage once more.  
  
“Now I hope I will see all of you again at our next meeting.”  
  
With that he left through a door behind the stage and the gathered Faunus began to leave in small groups. Following their example, Ruby and Blake began their trip back to beacon as well.  
  



	19. Chapter 19

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter diciotto  


  
As team RWBY was entering their own dorm room after another boring lecture from Professor Port, Ruby began to complain, “Ugh I never thought someone could make us sound like such wimps.”, somewhat justified as Prot had spent most of the last class going over instances where he ‘ate a pack of Beowulf for breakfast’.  
  
“I sadly to have to concur, it was one of his worst lectures yet.”, the white haired heiress agreed.  
  
“Now come on you two I got something here that should cheer at least Ruby up.”, Yang said holding up a cardboard tube.  
  
“Oh what is it?”, Ruby inquired curiosity sparked, as she listened for any clue that escaped the small brown object.  
  
“Not quite sure, but dad send it over so let’s get it open.”, With that the Blonde pulled of the lid and shook out the contents. What emerged seemed to be a rolled up pelt for a moment, before it revealed itself to be a small dog with a pop. The black grey and white corgi immediately looked up at the girls.  
  
“Zwei my boy, mommy’s been so worried about you”, the half Grimm exclaimed, picking up and hugging the little canine to her chest immediately.  
  
“Hey Zwei, dad’s doing fine I hope?”, Yang asked the dog and, to the immense surprise of the two other girls in the room, the dog gave a deliberate nod in response after he locked eyes with the blonde.  
  
While Weiss kept observing the interaction between the sisters and their dog with thinly veiled curiosity, as she had never been allowed a pet of her own, Blake had quickly retreated as far from the dog as she could manage.  
  
“Keep that mangy mutt away from me and my stuff.”  
  
Hearing the Cat Faunus panicked exclamation, the wolf eared redhead turned towards Blake, a burning fury lighting up her eyes, hands curled to claws after she sat Zwei back own on the ground. As she started to walk towards Blake with slow steps, her tail rose, standing stock still.  
  
“What did you just call Zwei?”, the half Grimm spat at the Faunus as she moved, Blake noticing a slight resemblance to a mother wolf defending her pup. Before the raven haired could even formulate a response, Ruby was standing before her, Silver eyes burning into amber ones.  
  
On the other side of the room, Weiss was eyeing her team leader worriedly, unsure how to take or explain this sudden change in demeanor.  
  
“What is going on with Ruby?”, she whispered to the blonde standing next to her, hoping the half Grimms sister could provide some answers.  
  
“I don’T know for sure, but we think it’s probably a Grimm thing. Ruby has been this protective of him ever since he licked at a small bleeding wound she had.”, Yang replied, keeping her voice low as well before she stepped forward to keep her sister away from blake if necessary.  
  
Blake had meanwhile finally ordered her thoughts enough to respond, even with Ruby’s death glare still fixed onto her.  
  
“I didn’t want to insult him, but please just keep him away from me please?”  
  
This seemed to calm Ruby down just a bit as her hands relaxed, and her gaze softened up a tad.  
  
“But why? Zwei is the nicest canine I ever met, well outside my pack that is.”  
  
Deciding not to point out that her Beowulfs aren’t actually a canine species, Blake took a deep breath and decided to explain herself, “I am terribly afraid of dogs, so please can you at least keep him away from me.”  
  
“How can you be afraid of such a cutie like Zwei here?”, Weiss asked as she was rubbing the corgi’s belly.  
  
With a short sigh, the cat Faunus decided to just show them before telling her story. Turning around so her back would be facing the other girls, she pulled her pants down, soon revealing a small, scarred bulge covered by little tufts of black fur. After hearing a trio of shocked breaths, the cat eared girl pulled up her pants once more and turned around.  
  
“As you just saw, Ruby isn’t the only one in this room born with a tail.”, Blake began to explain, “But when I was five, I tried to befriend a stray dog. I didn’t notice how it grew more and more agitated until began to bark and snap at me. When I turned around to run it bit down just short of the base of my tail.And well you can guess what happened after that.” Blake finished, her eyes slightly wet and her face filled with pain and terror. But just after the words had left her mouth, Ruby was already hugging her, tears flowing freely from the silver eyes.  
  
“Th-that’s so ho-horrible, I don’t even want to imagine what losing a tail feels like.”, the half Grimm spoke through her sobs, her tail enveloping both girls as much as it could.  
  
“I-I will at least keep Zwei with me as much as as I can and make sure he’s not alone in our room.”  
  
Leaning into the comforting hug, Blake turned her head t Yang, “So any clue on how long he is going to stay with us?”  
  
“Not yet, but let me check, maybe dad has stuffed something else in the package.”, the Blonde replied before she shook the cardboard container once more. To the surprise of everyone in the room what seemed to be a month’s worth of dog food cans and a letter fell out of the at most lower arm sized piece of cardboard. While both Weiss and Blake stared at the small hill of cans, Yang opened the letter and began to read through it.  
  
“Well it seems that we will have to take care of Zwei here for at least two weeks, probably until we’re back from our ‘first’ mission even, because dad is on a small excursion with his class and with a few of them allergic to dogs he couldn’t take Zwei with him.”  
  
“Great”, Balke muttered as her ears drooped she was not looking forward to spending two weeks this close to a dog.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
As she had promised Blake, Ruby was taking Zwei everywhere with her, even to some of their classes where she sat as far away from Blake to help her be more comfortable. Right now though the girl and her companion were strolling through the dormitories hallways aon their way to the courtyard, where they would meet up with Penny to go to Vale. Walking slowly, Ruby was lost in thought about what their private investigation into the remainder of the White Fang had turned up. All the businesses that had been on the list Blake and Ruby had received where normal, Faunus owned shops or restaurants, and judging how most had reacted to the half Grimms face and what the girls could tell from looking around, none of them were actually working with the White Fang in any official capacity.  
  
The two soup kitchens the girl had visited where a different story. When they had arrived, Ruby was more or less press ganged into helping out based on the ‘mask’ on her face. Not wanting to blow their cover, the wolf eared girl played along, behind the scenes she had found crates clearly marked with the ‘Fangs insignia containing probably stolen food and other supplies. But even so when she started handing out food to the poor that came there, she was surprised that the Faunus were willing to give to poor humans as well.  
  
Sure they only got the stalest bread they had and their bowls were at best half as full as those of the Faunus, but even so they got a little food, if they accepted how they were treated by the white Fang members handing out the food. In the end neither Blake nor Ruby could bring themselves to report the White Fang’s involvement and risk that all those they helped that night go hungry instead.  
  
Lost in her thoughts like that, and with the constant dark emotions pulsating out from Mountain Glenn, it was no wonder Ruby failed to notice the group of students in Haven uniforms coming the other way in the hallway. Even so it would not have ended in a collision, if the girl leading the group of foreigners had not been as focused on her scroll. But with the two girls sufficiently distracted, it came as it must and the two ran into each other, knocking bth back onto the ground. Looking at the other downed girl, the half Grimm’s silver eyes met the amber ones of the Raven haired girl before her. The girl seemed to be angered by what happened for just a moment, but when their eyes made contact, she stood up quickly and offered a hand to help up Ruby, a small smile on her face and a silver rose dagling form a chain around her neck.  
  
“Oh I am so sorry”, the girl began as she helped the wolf eared girl stand up, “I was just so focused on this old legend I found and I should have looked where I was going.”  
  
After she got standing once more, Ruby looked at the small group of students, the raven haired girl she had ran into, A grey haired boy i standing next to a green haired girl. behind them stood another black haired girl, with green eyes. None of them seemed to show any surprise at Ruby’s face, which seemed just a bit strange to the half Grimm. Sure most of Beacon knew about her by now, but these were foreign students.  
  
“No problem, I was just as lost in my thoughts. But mind telling me what story you were reading?”  
  
“Sure”, the other girl replied slightly hesitating, “It’s called ‘the Promise of the Silver Roses’. You know what, how about you give me your scroll number and I’ll send you the file over later today.”  
  
“Why not”, Ruby replied, and after a quick exchange of numbers they each went their separate ways. Wavign in goodbye to her new friends, the half Grimm called her dog to her side before they finished their walk to the courtyard, where they found penny already waiting for them.  
  
“Greetings friend Ruby and pet Zwei, how was your day so far?”  
  
“Well except for running into a girl in the hallway it has been great so far, what about yourself?”  
  
With a smile spanning nearly from ear to ear the green eyed girl replied.  
  
“It has been a rather average day, but your promise to accompany me to look for and buy an appropriate dress for the dance on friday. Do you really think we can find some that keep our respective conditions covered?”  
  
Ruby put a gloved hand to her chin for a moment before she answered, “Well I won’t need to cover my ears and tail, so if we really can’t find anything else, I’ll just have to get a fancy suit. I mean it’s definitely better than getting on Yangs bad side for sitting out the dance.”  
  
During this exchange, the two non humans had made their way to and into, the airship that would bring them down to Vale on this Saturday, the little corgi trailing behind them all the way.  
  
On their flight to Vale, the two girls chatted about many different topics, the robot telling the half Grimm about Atlas and all the small ways it differed from Vale, Ruby showing of her dear Crescent Rose, as much as that was possible inside the bullhead anyways.  
  
“So where are we going Friend Ruby?”, Penny asked as they disembarked.  
  
“Velvet told me about this nice little boutique that carries Faunus friendly clothing, you know with holes for tails, fins, ears and so on.”, Ruby answered as she began to lead Penny through the streets of Vale.  
  
When they came across a recently reopened ‘From Dust till Dawn’, Ruby quickly stepped in for a quick chat with the old shop owner and to pick up the newest Weapons weekly and Destructively Dusty, along with some magazines of fresh ammunition.  
  
About an hour after the arrived in the City, the girls finally entered the Clothing store Ruby had heard about. Inside they were immediately greeted by a young clerk who directed them to the correct section of the store. After making sure they were not overheard, Ruby leaned towards penny before she whispered.  
  
“So anything I should keep in mind when suggesting something for you?”  
  
Turning towards Ruby’s ear penny replied just as silently, “Well the center of my torso and back are not covered in fake skin for easier maintenance access, what about you?”  
  
“Well I do have fur going along my arms,legs and spine as well as some small bone spikes.Oh and my fingers end in relatively sharp claws, so i need something that goes with leather gloves.”  
  
With their special needs known to each other, the two of them began to look through the dresses on display, suggesting one to the other from time to time or trying one on themselves. They spend most of the afternoon in this fashion, but in the ned, Penny settled on a sleeveless. lime green dress. Sadly they had not managed to find a dress that the half Grimm liked that also hid her true nature adequately enough. So instead, Ruby got herself a suit shirt and tie. The red jacket would be embroidered with her Rose Emblem on the back, while the black pants were already detailed with red roses along the legs.  
  
As they got ready to pay, Penny interjected when Ruby wanted to pay for her own purchases.  
  
“No need friend Ruby.”  
  
WIth that she had the clerk scan her dress as well, before she held out a credit card to pay.  
  
“Why did you pay for me?” Ruby asked her robotic friend as they stepped out of the shop.  
  
“Oh I did not, the card was given to me by specialist Schnee to pay for our outfits, she thought it a nice reward to you -hic- for doing this for me.”  
  



	20. World of A Grimm Rose T'ad: The Promise of the Silver Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So as with the last World of a Grimm Rose we have a chapter containign an in-Universe story, this time sent to Ruby by Cinder.

WoAGR  
T'ad  
The Promise of the Silver Roses  


  
As I told you, I attached the file I read about the Promise of the Rose to this message.  
  
  
C.F.  
  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
  
More than twenty years ago, here in the kingdom of Vale, our kind and fair king Leonoris Valorious married one of the highest decorated knights and defenders, Lady Lilie, the youngest of the fabled silver eyed warriors who protected the city of vale with the red and black balde past down since before the Kingdoms foundation.  
  
Not long after their Union, Lilie was pregnant with their firstborn child, but despite that she was unwilling to stop to fight against the beasts of Grimm. Even when the king pleaded with his queen to reconsider, she was steadfast in her believe that the safety of the kingdom was more important than her own. But this time, when Lady Lilie led the defenders of Vale against the Grimm, only two of them managed to return from their clash with the hordes of the Grimm. And if it hadn’t been for the last of her close friends Leif Eis, who had carried the woman with a broken leg on his back, she would have perished that day as well.  
  
While the Queen had been confined to the castle grounds with her broken leg, Leif asked Leonoris to found a new knightly order charged with protecting the Royal family, if need be even from themselves. Seeing the state his wife had returned in, the King agreed to Leif’s request and named our order the Knights of the Silver Rose, after her wife's eyes and the flowers she had planted to commemorate her fallen friends. Recruiting what few of his and the Queens friends remained, Leif became our first leader.  
  
The remainder of the Queen's pregnancy passed without incident, much to the silver eyed woman’s annoyance. But when the child was finally born, everyone was shocked at what they saw before them. The little girl that had emerged from Lilie's womb had the same silver eyes as her mother, but they were set in a Grimm like face. The fingers as well were not quite human, as they ended in the sharp white claws of a beast.  
  
While the king demanded the abomination be slain at once, his close advisor and the queen pleaded him to reconsider. Swayed by the words of his wife and close friend he agreed to let the girl live, but she would not be allowed to be seen by the public.  
  
Much to the King’s surprise, his firstborn daughter grew up much like any other young girl, except for the feathers growing between her normal near black red hair and the tail feathers hidden beneath her skirts. Salem, as Lilie had named her daughter, always came crawling, and later on walking or running, when someone in the castle felt down or frustrated, always hoping to make them feel better.  
  
When the princess was a few years old, her little brother, Leonard Valorious was born. As the pair of siblings grew older, Salem began to resent her brother for the freedom he enjoyed. Where she was confined to the palace ground at all times, her brother only needed to wait for an escort to go where ever he wanted. Her freedom was further curtailed after arms began to grow feathers as well until they resembled a Nevermores wings. This occured during her 17th winter when tensions run high as the public was suffering from a severe food shortage. With the rising death toll, so too rose the people's negativity as they grew more and more outraged how their king had let something like this happen.  
  
Meanwhile, Salem’s arms began to first sprout feathers just like those intermingled with her hair. Soon new bones grew out of her wrists and maybe a week later, her ‘arms’ were able to stretch form one side to the other in most hallways in the castle. Salem’s steadily growing desire to test out her wings and fly, or atleast glide for a bit, was immediately stopped by her father's orders to not let her leave the castle itself, lest his monster of a daughter be seen by the public, under the pretense that she might be mistaken for a grimm by outsiders. Begrudgingly we agreed, as a panicked hunter shooting her with his bow was a slim but possible threat to the princesses live.  
  
This tense atmosphere lasted until the princesses 18th birthday a few months later when a dispute between the king and his daughter escalate until she ripped open his cheek with her claws. Enraged how his daughter had dared to wound him, Leonoris decided to banish Salem to the young colony on the continent of Draconis.  
  
Once she arrived there, Salem had to work hard for the most part of each day, tiling the land alongside of convicted criminals and hopeful settlers, dealing with strange looks to both her Grimm liek and womanly features from the males around her.  
  
Even so for the first time in her life Salem felt free, sure she had to keep up her work quota but once she was done with that, she could spent the remaining hours of daylight however she wanted and nearly everywhere in the colony, sometimes stretching her wings out to their full rather impressive size and fly for a bit, other times she sat down with some of the other workers and just chatted about their past. Over the years she spent there, she became close friends with a few of them, mostly criminals who had stopped caring about her monstrous appearance sooner than others, after all they all had been branded as monsters just the same. But it seemed like fate itself had sworn to keep the young woman unhappy, as two years after she had arrived, a ship arrived with urgent news from the homeland. Soon a public announcement was set up at which the inhabitants were informed that their ear king had past away. As sorrow gripped most of the non criminal settlers, the young Grimm like woman was seen running into her hut, presumably to grief for her father or pacl ehr things to return and take her place as queen.  
  
As the speech continued, people were informed that the King's son Leonard would take over the throne. This caused outrage to start with the criminals who had grown close to the exiled princess, which soon devolved into a full on riot which was quickly subdued. Even so it attracted an immense horde of Grimm which soon overcame the colonies weak defenses, causing a mass panic to start as people rushed to the docks and onto the few ships anchored there. Survivors who had boarded the last ship claim that they saw the horde of Grimm part as they took off, a white skinned woman with black wings walking through the cleared space with quick stepps.  
  
  
We believe this woman to be our dear princess and rightful ruler. Because of this we, the knights of the Silver Rose swear to return to Draconis and search for Salem Valorious the third as soon as Vale has won this war Mantle and Mistral started in our presumed hour of weakness.  
  



	21. Chapter Neunzehn

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Neunzehn  


  
  
As it grew evident that team CFVY would not manage to return to Beacon in time for the Vytal dance, Velvet had sent a message to Yang asking if she and her team could take over planning and setting up everything for her, as she had already helped her out last semester.  
  
After she enlisted Weiss’ help the two humans of team RWBY started a discussion about what should be done and how immediately. While her Sister was thus occupied, Blake approached Ruby with a problem for them to solve.  
  
“So I don’t think Zwei can accompany you to the dance, and as you promised not to leave him in our room alone, what are you going to do with him Friday night?”  
  
“Well I was thinking that maybe one of my pack could sit him, but then again getting a Grimm into the Dorm would be a challenge.”, Ruby replied scratching her chin as she tried to think of a better solution. With Blake standing before her expectating a quick answer, Ruby felt a bit of pressure until another idea came to her.  
  
“Wait maybe we can let him stay in JNPRs room for that night!”, the half Grimm shouted, drawing the irritated gaze of her sister and her partner for interrupting them.  
  
“well how about we go ask them and leave these two to their planning”, Blake suggested, pointing at their other teammates as she turned to the door. Picking up the little corgi currently perched on her own bed, Ruby stepps behind Blake and follows the cat eared Faunus across the hall to their friends room. Stopping in front of it, Ruby carefully knocks, a moment later, Jaune opens the door.  
  
“Yes? Oh hello Ruby, Blake.”, the blond boy said as he noticed the girls standing before the door, “What brings you here?”  
  
Holding Zwei towards the fellow student, the redhead begins to explain, “Well it’s about this little guy here. See because Blake doesn’t want him to be alone with her stuff, we agreed that I would take him with me while we looked after him for our dad. Now I obviously can’t take him with me to the dance, so we were facing a little problem until I thought, ‘Hey maybe he can stay with JNPR for that night’, so would you mind keeping Zwei here in your room for the night of the dance?”  
  
Faced with not one but two sets of puppy eyes, Jaune had no chance but to agree, “Oh okay, just bring him over after class, I am sure Norra will be excited to play with him until we need to get ready.”, turning back into the room he quickly added, “Or does anyone here have a problem with letting Ruby’s dog stay here for a night?”  
  
As none of his teammates had any problems they wanted to share, he turned back to Ruby.  
  
“Well then see you tomorrow in class.”, with that he closed the door, while Ruby and Blake walked back into their own dorm room, both relieved that a solution had been found so easily. The moment they entered their own room, Weiss was rushing before Ruby, fixing the half Grimm’s silver eyes with a stern gaze as she asked, “Ruby, can you really carry the same weight your sister can?”  
  
“Have you ever tried to wrestle with a Grimm half my age?”, Ruby asked sarcastically with a roll of her eyes and a deadpan voice before she continued, smiling at her own wit, “but yes I can match Yang when carrying heavy equipment why?”  
  
“Great”, the Heiress replied shortly, moving back towards the whiteboard she and Yang had set up in the short time they were alone in the room. Looking over to balke, the cat Faunus was just shaking her head, as she had no idea how they managed that either.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
A few days later, team RWBY was working on getting the ballroom setup right for the Dance the next evening. As they had already hung the decorations on the ceiling and railings of the upper floor, they were now bringing the furniture and equipment in from a nearby storage room. While Weiss and Blake were carrying in tables and chairs, setting them up near the rooms walls to leave the center free as a dancefloor. Meanwhile, Ruby and Yang were carrying in the second to last set of speakers, Ruby grumbling about their progress.  
  
“If Ozpin would just let me call in my guys, we would have been done an hour ago.”, the half Grimm complained once more as she sat her speaker down next to the one her sister had been carrying.  
  
“Well I have to agree with him Sis, just think what a school full of Huntsmen in training would do to three dozen Beowolves.”, the blonde said as she turned around, waving for her sister to follow her back to where the remaining speakers were kept.  
  
Following after her, the wolf eared girl looked to her side where their Corgi was following her, said ears and tail hanging low, “I know, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have been quicker if we had gotten them to help us.”  
  
As they reached the door, the blonde replied, her left hand reaching for the door handle, “More importantly, did you manage to get a dress that covers your fur and everything?”  
  
Sighing once again as they stepped through the door and turned right towards the small storage room, the redhead answered, “Not really, I mean I even went to a store that caters especially to Faunus with Penny, but even there I did not find a dress that would work.”, as she continued, her ears raised a tad and her voice got a little bit of warmth back, “But I did manage to get this rad red and black suit that both looks good on me and doesn’t make my gloves look out of place.”  
  
As the sisters entered the room they had been headed towards, Yang continued her interrogation with a smile on her lips, “So any boy asked you to go to the dance with him yet Rubes?”  
  
“No”, her sister replied flatly, “And why would they, I don’t know any boys here besides Jaune and Ren.”  
  
After a short look around, the two girls found the last pair of speakers, picking up one each with ease, they turned to leave the room and make their way back through the hallways to the Ballroom. Moving slowly with their heavy load, it took them a bit longer to return but once they got back into the ballroom, Yang set down her speaker in the right hand corner near the door, while Ruby moved towards the left to set down her own load.  
  
As they met up in the center of the room once more, the half Grimm addressed her sister, “So what do we need to carry in next?”  
  
“Let’s get those long table for the punch bowls and snacks”, Yang replied with quickly, already turning around to find the tables she mentioned. After she made sure Zwei was still at her side, Ruby quickly caught up to her sister as the two of them stepped through the doors once more.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Despite Ruby’s earlier doubts, the dance had turned out to be somewhat enjoyable. Although how much of that was due to Jaune changing into a dress halfway through the evening, before the entirety of team JNPR had started a surprisingly well synchronized dance number was up for debate.  
  
But even so Ruby was on her way outside to catch a nose full of fresh air, her sensitive senses not quite able to ignore the smell of all the dancing and thus sweating students around her. As she finally stepped out of the ballroom and into the fresh night air, the half Grimm thought she felt a pinch of fear for a moment. Looking up at the roofs she believed it had come from, she noticed a black clad figure running quickly over them towards the CCT tower.  
  
Rushing towards the building herself, the wolf eared girl started to dial her lockers recall code, as she had not hidden her knives in her sleeves and was not confident enough in her unarmed skills to win a fight with only her bare claws. Sadly this meant she was unable to activate her semblance, as she would have more than likely lost her scroll or wouldn’t have been able to call her locker to ehr position until she stopped.  
  
As she turned towards the entrance of the CCT tower, her locker finally arrived next to her. Noticing a knocked out guard barely hidden beneath a bush next to the entrance, the half Grimm pulled Crescent Rose out of the locker, and entered the building.  
  
To the wolf tailed girls immense surprise, she found all the guards in the lobby had been knocked out as well. Moving to the back where the elevator was located, she saw it rising, hopefully containing the intruder. Remembering the floor it stopped, she called it back own with the push of a button, wishing it would move faster the whole time.  
  
When the lift finally arrived, she got in quickly and pressed the button for the story the intruder had probably gone to.  
  
As she stepped out of the elevator, Ruby unfolded her weapon into its staff form as she found herself in a room filled with rows upon rows of terminals. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, despite her perfect night vision, she perked up her ears to listen for any sounds that seemed out of place. Only a moment later the furred appendages on her head picked up some muffled clicking as if two cloth wrapped vials impacted each other, behind a nearby set of terminals.  
  
“Come out, I know where you are.”, the half Grimm proclaimed confidently, holding her weapon diagonally to better intercept any incoming attacks. Which was quite evidently needed as the woman hiding behind the counter jumped up and kicked out at Ruby, who caught the attack on the center of her weapon, but even then the force behind it pushed her back just enough to give the intruder some breathing room. She immediately used it to empty a vial of dust in the air before her summoning a series of obsidian like spikes that were hurled at the wolf eared girl. Ruby quickly dodged to the side, striking the few spikes that would have still impacted out of the air while her opponent used another pair of vials to create a pair of scimitars made of the same dark and glass like substance.  
  
As the half Grimm struck at the masked womans side, the black haired intruder ducked low to avoid the attack before closing the distance between her and Ruby, thus turning the length of the redheads weapon against her. Even so, thanks to the long time she had been using a staff by now, Ruby managed to keep up with the dual wielding woman’s quicker attacks but was hard pressed to launch, much less land a counterattack of her own.  
  
After a quick burst of her semblance, Ruby managed to keep the woman at a more favourable distance, but even so each strike she sent the woman's way was parried by one of her blades as she slashed at the half Grimm with the other, just to have it intercepted by the other end of the girls weapon. They continued to trade blows like this for a while, neither managing more than a few hits that did barely reduce the others Aura, with Ruby keeping herself interposed between the exit and the intruder.  
  
Trying to break the stalemate, the woman activated Dust hidden along her sleeves, hurling flames at Ruby. The tailed girl barely managed to dodge out of their way, opening the way towards the elevators for the intruder. Unwilling to let her opponent escape, Ruby fired a shot at her feet, which caused her to stumble for a moment as the redhead’s Semblance brought her back between the raven haired woman and the lifts.  
  
This stalemate continued for a few minutes, until both of them were surprised by the ‘ding’ of the arriving lift car. Fearing it contained the intruders accomplice, Ruby turned around as the doors opened, revealing Penny in the green dress the two of them had bought together earlier that week. Before she could turn around, the wolf eared girl could her one of the rooms windows shatter. Turning around she noticed that the Woman had used her moment of distraction to escape through it.  
  
“Friend Ruby is everything in order? I saw you leaving the dance in a hurry -hic- so I decided to follow you as quickly as I could -hic-”  
  
Putting down one end of Crescent Rose, as she wouldn’t be able to sheathe the weapon any way, Ruby leaned more of her weight on the weapon before she replied.  
  
“No, not everything is in order. I followed a suspicious figure here and when I cornered her, she attacked and we had a short fight until she made her escape. But let’s go find Professor Ozpin so I can inform him about this.”  
  
  



	22. Chapter Eíkosi

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter eíkosi

  
It was finally here, the day they would pick the mission they would complete over the next few weeks instead of normal classes. And Ruby barely managed to keep her enthusiasm contained. Even then the half Grimm woke the rest of her team at the crack of dawn so they had enough time to prepare for their mission, which would take them into Mountain Glenn if Ruby had anything to say about it. So the girls mainly packed gear the would need for navigating and surviving in the urban ruins.  
  
The four of them packed enough ratios to last them a week, as they were not sure how long their mission would take and were sure they would not find much food in the abandoned city, well all but Ruby, who was confident she could survive of only the negative emotions radiating out of the ruins for a week. instead she filled the bottom of her pack with Zwei’s dog food, unwilling to leave him alone for however long their mission might take.  
  
Once they were finished with packing, the four girls shouldered their backpacks and made their way to the auditorium, where Ozpin would address all students currently at Beacon before they could select from the available missions.  
  
Trying to keep the corgi in her pack quiet, Ruby only listen to the speech with half an ear. Once the speech had concluded, the wolf eared girl led her team towards the area displaying missions to the southeast of Vale. Looking through the ones still available, Ruby could find only one that would take place in Mountain Glenn, a search and destroy mission. Reading through the missions description, Ruby barely managed to choke back a laugh, as it read ‘find the large pack of Beowolves roaming through the ruins and get rid of them’.  
  
“This sounds like the perfect mission for us.”, Ruby said as she turned to ehr teammates, a grin spread across the visible parts of her face.  
  
“Well then select it before some other team does.”, Weiss said to the redhead, stemming her hands on her hips in annoyance.  
  
Heeding her teammates advice, Ruby quickly typed in their Team ID, after which a short success message was displayed before they received more details about their mission on their scrolls. They were informed that the mission would start at their earliest convenience and that they should report to their Huntsman escort at the airfield immediately.  
  
Arriving at the designated airship after a short run across the campus, they were just as surprised to see prof. Oobleck waiting there, as he was to see a team of first year students.  
  
“Hello students, why are you in such a hurry to get here?”  
  
“We were told to meet up with the Huntsman leading our mission at this airship immediately.”, Weiss replied quickly, still panting a little bit and trying to hide her surprise at the teacher’s presence behind a polite smile.  
  
Hearing this, the green haired professor pulled out his own scroll and checked his new messaged before looking at team RWBY once more.  
  
“It seems there must have been some kind of mistake, while you are indeed logged as the team following me on my mission to Mountain Glenn, it should have only been available to teams with prior mission experience.”  
  
Nervously tipping her fingers together, Ruby addressed the glasses wearing Huntsman before her, “Well we do actually have mission experience. We even helped the VPD to catch Roman Torchwick last semester during it.”  
  
“Well in that case come aboard, but I will have to inform the Headmaster about this.”, Oobleck replied as he pulled out his own scroll and began typing down a message to Ozpin, “Now hurry, we could have been on our way minutes ago.”  
  
Stepping into the airship with all due haste, the four students soon stood next to their professor holding onto nearby railings as the Huntsman told the pilot to take of.  
  
As the hatches closed, Dr. Oobleck turned to face his students and begin their mission briefing.  
  
“We are flying to the ruins of Mountain Glenn, as you already know, but let me remind you what we can expect of them,” he began informing the students, but took a short break to take a sip of coffee from his thermos, before he continued, raising his voice to be heard easily over the noise of the engines, “Shortly after it was abandoned, Grimm began to flock towards the city in large numbers for as of yet unknown reasons. Now the ruins are teeming with the creatures of Grimm. While most of them are simple Beowolves, we can’t dismiss the possibility of older or more dangerous Grimm being present.”  
  
Taking a look out of the window next to him, the Huntsmen continued, “But get ready now, we should cross the cities borders any minute no-“ “ **[Delicious]** ”, sounded a loud howl, much to close for the professor to feel comfortable.  
  
“Did you hear that girls? That was the howl of an Alpha Beowolf, probably close to twenty years old and on top of a nearby building for us to hear it so clearly,” as he informed the girls of this factoid, he was too focused on deducing more information about the source of this sound to notice how miss Rose was holding her mouth shut with her gloved hands.  
  
A few moments later their pilot ahd let them of in a plaza near the center of the remains of Mountain Glenn.  
  
“From this moment onward you must do exactly as I say, understood girls?” the Huntsmen addressed them as the airship took off again. After the girls nodded to signal their understanding, taking another drink of coffee, Oobleck continued, “Very well then first please leave your bags here for now, we will retrieve them once we have a better idea of our immediate surroundings.“  
  
“Is that really necessary?”; the half Grimm asked, rubbing her neck, while the rest of her team were already storing their belongings in a nearby building that appeared mostly intact.  
  
“Miss Rose, what could be so important that you can’t leave it here for a day at the most?”  
  
With impeccable timing Zwei choose this moment to finally get some fresh air and stuck his head out of wolf eared girl’s backpack. As the corgi gasped for fresh air, Oobleck quickly pulled him out of the girls bag and brought him closer to his face to inspect the animal.  
  
“What an ingenious idea miss Rose, your dogs keen nose and superior hearing will be an invaluable asset when scouting through an area like this. I must admit I did not expect such planning and preparation from a team of first year student,”the professor praised the wolf tailed student, still holding up her dog.  
  
With her tail wagging from those kinds words, Ruby mumbled “Thank you professor.”  
  
“Well then please put the rest of your belongings with the bags of your teams now so we can start to move.”, the professor instructed the student once more, pushing his glasses back up his nose.  
  
Finally complying with his orders, Ruby stored her pack in the same building her teammates had, after that the group of five and one dog began to traverse the remains of Mountain Glenn. As they moved slowly from street corner to street corner, all of them kept a constant vigil so they would not be surprised by any Grimm.  
  
All the while, Ruby felt the emotions that had been ‘burned into the cities foundation’ during its fall seeping into her. About fifteen minutes after they started moving, she felt the same strange sensation, she had felt when she drank the sap in Forever Fall, spreading along her fur.  
  
Not long after that, they laid eyes upon a single Beowolf, but before he could caution the girls not to alert it to their presence, Oobleck was surprised to hear a series of sharp barks and loud howls coming from behind him.  
  
“ **[** **Bring your Alpha here, I will take over his position]** ”, as he turned around he was shocked to realize that those Grimm like sounds were coming from the throat of the Grimm faced girl. But the next surprise did not take long, as the Grimm before them run away, his tail tucked between its legs.  
  
“Miss Rose what did you just do?” the professor asked aloud, his eyes wide behind his glasses, his mouth barely not hanging open.  
  
Stepping up to her teacher, the redhead said confidently, “I just begun to take care of the Beowolves in this city.”  
  
Before the green haired Huntsman could ask her to clarify, Ruby took another step forward to meet the arriving pack of Grimm, still being filled to the brim with all the negative emotions coming from all around her. As the Beowolves were taking positions along a rough circle around Ruby and what she assumed to be their Alpha, she felt her feet change even more than last time, forcing her to walk completely on her toes, while her Gloves had already been pierced by her growing claws.  
  
When every Grimm was standing still, Ruby turned towards her team once more, just as the claws growing from her toes peaked out of her boots.  
  
“Don’t interfere with this,” she said calmly before she moved to look the packs leader in the eye, getting ready to stop its charge as soon as it came close to her. But unlike the younger beasts she had defended her own position against, this one was older and thus more cautious so the two combatants merely waited who would make the first move for now. Deciding to try and dictated the flow of their duel, Ruby sprinted forward, feigning a swipe at its throat with her left claw.When the Alpha raised unto its hind legs to avoid her attack, she thrust her legs forward and slid beneath its legs, tearing deep wounds into its right leg with her other hand. But when the Grimm reacted quicker than she expected, she was not prepared to dodge and so it’s tail flung her against a nearby Lamppost, draining her Aura form both impacts.  
  
Getting up slowly, Ruby decided to take it up a notch and, with the help of her semblance moved onto the Alpha’s neck, wrapping her legs and hands around its throat to hold on, digging into its flesh with her claw tipped fingers. Leaning forward she barked into its ear, “ **[** **Submit to me, or I will rip out your throat]** ”  
  
She gave the alpha a few moments to realize it would not be able to shake her off, digging her claws in deeper. When it finally laid down and growled, “ **[** **I give, Alpha]** ”, Ruby stepped off it’s back, her now digitigrade feet slipping out of her combat boots.  
  
Turning around she saw all the Grimm surrounding them laying their heads low before her as well. But when she looked at her team once more, she was met by the shocked filled face of Professor Oobleck.  
  
“I can explain all this,” the half Grimm said just as her sleeves were pierced by a row of bone spikes growing out of her arms, which seemed to stop once they were as long as her hands.


	23. Chapter Vingt et Un

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter vingt et un  


  
Once the Professor had processed the words just uttered by the half Grimm before him, his face lit up with an intense curiosity. “Well then miss Rose, I would be delighted if you did.” The green haired man said, taking a short sip from his thermos, not sparing the surprisingly docile Grimm around them a second glance, his attention completely focused on the girl in the red cloak before him.  
  
Deciding to better come clean after this display, Ruby took a deep breath before she spoke once more.  
  
“You see Prof-” “Doctor, miss Rose” “Doctor Oobleck, I am part Beowolf, and that is actually part of the reason we took this mission.” Rubbing the new additions to her arms warily, Ruby continued. “I could always feel, is probably the best word, all these old emotions radiating out of these Ruins when I was in Vale, but about the time the White Fang topped causing trouble in Vale, they changed,” the half Grimm continued.  
  
As she took a breath to collect herself, Oobleck interrupted her. “Ah, so that Beowolf howl we heard when we were still in the bullhead was actually you. Well at least my guess of age was close enough.” Gesturing at the site of Ruby’s fight with the former alpha he continued, barely noting the half Grimm nod in confirmation.  
  
“And this I guess was a fight for dominance not unlike what we would see with a pack of wild animals.” While the Grimm were slowly getting up again, Oobleck seemed to not even need to breath as he continued. “Fascinating, truly fascinating. We will need to schedule a time for a more in depth interview when we get back to Beacon miss Rose.” Even though he finally took a break in speaking to take another drink and catch a short breath, none of the girls around him were able to interject anything, to stunned by how well he was taking Ruby’s revelations.  
  
“Now I trust you can keep your pack from attacking us” He continued as he finally turned back to Ruby, who turned back around to the Grimm before barking once again, “[Don’t hurt these humans and the cat Faunus.]” The Grimm whined, but as they had just witnessed how strong their new alpha was, none dared to defy her.  
  
Turning back to her teacher Ruby answered him. “Just told them not to harm any of you, they will listen if they know what’s good for them. Also would leading them to Forever Fall count as ‘getting rid of them’ for the mission parameters?” Finishing her question, Ruby looked up at her teacher hopefully, scratching her now clawed feet over the concrete nervously.  
  
“Well they would be out of Mountain Glenn, so technically the mission should be counted as successfully completed.” The Huntsman replied as he sat down on a nearby chunk of concrete. “But with the Grimm surrounding us taken care of for now, what did you mean by saying the emotions ‘changed’?”  
  
While the Professor adjusted his glasses, Ruby took a moment to find the right words. when She finally spoke up she stepped closer to the green haired man, sitting down on a small rock. “Well normally I just felt where the ruins were like seeing a candle from the corner of your eye. But recently it feels more like a bonfire or signal flare of fear and hatred.”  
  
Stepping towards the seated apir, Blake started to explain their mission choice in greater detail. “With the sudden drop in White Fang activity in Vale, we decided to investigate, in case they were hiding away here, preparing for something big.”  
  
Leaning back, the teacher took a moment to think the girls world over before he answered. “That sounds like a valid hypothesis, well done girls.” Turning from the raven haired girl to her red haired teammate. “Miss Rose can you tell us where these ‘stronger’ emotions are coming from? They may lead us towards who entered or what has changed in these ruins.”  
  
Nodding quickly, Ruby closed her eyes, her canine ears swiveling atop her head before she lowered her left hand, pointing at the ground with her index finger. “It seems they are coming from beneath the city.” The half Grimm answered as she opened her eyes.  
  
“That means they are using the catacombs beneath the city, but why there? All tunnels that lead to Vale have been sealed shortly after news of the cities demise had reached the Kingdom.” Oobleck mused aloud as he stood up and paced between the girls.  
  
“Well they have been stealing Dust for most of our first semester, so maybe they think they can blow the tunnels open?” Weiss suggested cautiously to Oobleck, who had his back turned towards her at the moment.  
  
“If that is true, we need to find and stop them as soon as possible.” The teacher said as he spun around to face Weiss. “Some of these tunnels lead to the very center of Vale.” Turning towards the wolf eared girl, who was currently inspecting the recent changes to her body by stroking the spines growing out of ehr arms with her fingers, he asked. “Miss Rose, can these Grimm be trusted to stay our allies during a fight and not kill our enemies if we go after the White Fang ourselves?”  
  
When the professor addressed her, Ruby jumped up and quickly replied. “I just showed them how easily I can take them out, so they shouldn’t attack us.” The Grimm faced girl responded, before she tilted her head to the side a bit as she thought about the other part of Ooblecks question. “But it may take some time to get them to not kill their targets. Maybe by morning I will have them broken enough for that.” Finishing her reply, the wolf eared girl turned to the Grimm sitting behind her.  
  
“Very well, in that case have them follow after us, while we search for a suitable campsite.” The Professor said as he moved to the front of their small group, stepping away from Ruby who was currently comparing her new ‘feet’ to Zwei’s paws. “There the non-Grimm among us can rest, or do you require sleep as well miss Rose?” When the girl looked up from her and the corgi’s paws to shake her head he continued. “Good then during the night you can instruct your Grimm in ways to take out a target without killing.”  
  
Once all the girls had agreed, Ruby stood up from where she was sitting, still getting used to walking on her paws, she staggered over towards her pack. Raising her voice the wolf tailed girl barked at her pack. “[follow us]” Waving her claw tipped hand towards her four companions she growled. “[And don’t harm these four]”  
  
With that done she moved to take the rear position behind her teammates and Oobleck, her little corgi walking at her side.  
  
As they made their way through the ruins, the girls kept a lookout for any hostile Grimm they might encounter while their teacher searched for a any building s, or remains of one, that could serve them as an adequate campsite. Luckily for them, the only Grimm they encountered were a few more Beowolves, who quickly joined Ruby's pack as its size became evident to them. While they were walking Ruby felt the strange sensation continue along the fur covering her spine. Over the course of their travels, she noticed the same spikes she had on her arms growing out of her spine as well and when Professor Oobleck finally found a suitable site in the late afternoon, they had broken through the back of Ruby’s dress, but barely noticeable under her cloak.  
  
While Ruby had been busy with getting used to her changes and watching the last new ones happen, Oobleck had been asking the rest of her team why they choose to become Huntresses. So when the three girls sat own around the campfire they had started, they looked towards the teacher sitting on the other side of it when Weiss spoke up.  
  
“Pro- Doctor Oobleck, may I ask why you did not ask Ruby why she wanted to become a Huntress?”  
  
Setting down his thermos, the green haired Huntsman leaned forward as he answered. “Yes you may miss Schnee. You see I have been studying history many years to keep others from repeating it’s mistakes and help my students to learn from it.” After picking up his thermos for a quick sip, the teacher continued. “During these I noticed that in each generation there was at least one very prominent Huntsman or Huntress, or whatever the closest equivalent of the time was, always with silver eyes and the ability to repel Grimm by their mere presence, wielding weapons with red and black tinted blades. As miss Rose's mother was among my most outstanding students during my early time teaching at Beacon and was wielding a weapon that fit the description of what past generations of these Silver eyed Warriors used, I am assuming the two of them are the latest two in this long line of near mythical protectors of humanity.”  
  
Hitting her flat hand with her other Fist as she remembered, Yang spoke up. “Oh, yeah Ruby showed me a legend about their origin a short while after we started at Beacon. And one that claimed the second to last king of Vale took one of them as his wife.”  
  
Nodding along with Yangs words Oobleck spoke up the moment she had finished. “Ah, yes Knight Lilie Argentum, later Valorious was indeed the mother of Vale’s last King, a fearsome warrior himself.” Looking out of the window, Oobleck noticed that night had already fallen. “But now get to sleep, all of you need to rest.”  
  
Outside the other girls shelter, Ruby was standing before her pack, drilling them in non lethal ways to take out their prey. By demonstrating a few techniques on the more rebellious members of ehr pack, she also solidified her position as alpha. Even so, with her gaze wandering across the Beowolves before her, she was pleased with how they managed to mimic the movements she was demonstrating. But even so as she leaned down to scratch the Corgi sleeping at her side behind the ears, she just hoped whomever they found tomorrow would have Aura, otherwise the claws of the Grimm might remove limbs even when being careful. Between teaching her new Beowolves, Ruby also managed to take a few hours to herself to adjust to all the physical changes she had gone through in the last 24 hours.  
  
As her ears picked up stepps coming from behind her, Ruby saw her blonde half-sister step out of the building they had found shelter in, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep out of her eyes. “Morning Sis.” Yang began before she interrupted herself with a yawn. “How did breaking in the Grimm go?”  
  
“Morning Yang, it went well enough I hope.” the redhead replied a small grin spreading over the movable parts of her face at the sight of her sister. After a few minutes of waiting the rest of their team had stepped outside as well, followed by Oobleck who was drinking out of his seemingly bottomless thermos. “So let us go and find this underground criminal base.” The professor proclaimed proudly.  
  
“Yes Prof- Doctor, should I send out the Grimm as scouts?” Ruby asked as she woke up Zwei.  
  
“Excellent idea miss Rose, please do so.”  
  
“ **[Go find a way down.]** ” The half Grimm howled at her pack, which quickly dispersed and began to move through the nearby allies, keeping each other aware of their positions by short howls.


	24. Chapter Vinte e Dois

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter vinte e dois  


  
Much to team RWBY’s frustration, even with the help of Ruby’s new pack they had been searching for a few hours by now, and had nothing to show for it yet. This was mostly due to the fact that the Grimm had a hard time grasping what they were looking for, while the students and their teacher on the other hand were preoccupied with navigating the unfamiliar ruins. On top of that, Ruby was still getting used to how walking on her new feet felt, her claws clicking on the concrete walkways they traversed.  
  
“ **[** **Come Alpha]** ” A sudden howl grabbed the half Grimm’s attention and after it was repeated once more, the girl in the red cloak led her teammates and Professor Oobleck towards it.  
  
“They found something over there.” Ruby informed the others as she continued to move towards the howling Beowolf, not waiting for any questions to be asked.  
  
Luckily the pair of Grimm wasn’t very far away and a few minutes later they were joined by their alpha, her companions not far behind. What the Grimm had found seemed to be a wide staircase leading below the streets of Mountain Glenn, a nearby sign barely readable as saying ‘Subway’.  
  
When Oobleck finally caught up to the redhead, he pointed on hand at her accusingly, standing slightly hunched over, his other hand holding his side.  
  
“Miss Rose, while this is indeed very urgent, running of without the rest of your team is not how a Huntress to be like you should act, no matter how friendly the Grimm might be towards you.”  
  
Ruby hung her head low, ears drooping own, as she had nothing she could say to justify not waiting those few seconds for her teammates to come with her instead of running after her. All in all she looked quite similar to a chastised puppy, but that did not stop the teacher from continuing.  
  
“In the same vein, I would suggest you recall the rest of your Beowolves miss Rose. After all we can not be sure who we will actually encounter down there, and how many hostiles there will be.”  
  
Her ears and tail still hanging low, Ruby nodded and let out a howl of her own. “ **[** **Come here, all of you]** ” Looking up at the Huntsman’s face she continued. “They should be on their way now Professor.”  
  
“If I might ask.” Weiss began carefully, waiting until Oobleck had turned towards her before she continued. “How will we continue once we are underground?”  
  
Taking a short drink from his ever present thermos, Oobleck replied to the white haired girl. “A very good question Miss Schnee. As we are not aware of the actual extend either these subterranean Catacombs or the terrorists use of them, I would suggest we send a few of miss Rose’s Grimm, what a strange thing to say, ahead as scouts, following their instinct to the source of ‘fear’ which will hopefully be the White Fangs base of operations.” Holding up his free hand, so the students wouldn’t begin questioning him, Oobleck took a short sip from his thermos, before he hooked it to his belt as he continued.  
  
“Once we find them, I trust miss Rose to be able to command her Beowolves to hold off the majority of whom ever we might find, while the rest of us find out what is actually going on here. Any questions?”  
  
“What will we do when we have captured them?” Blake asked, her bow seemingly twitching as her gaze was fixated on the professor’s glasses.  
  
“Once we finish escorting back to the surface, I will call Beacon to request a prisoner transport. Once they arrive, we hand the criminals over so they can be brought to proper justice.”  
  
When noone else voiced a concern or question, Oobleck continued. “Well then we just have to wait for our reinforcements.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Half an hour of tracking through the Subway tunnels beneath the ruins, the Grimm sent ahead had finally found other humans and Faunus in a rather sizable cavern at the end of a set of Subway tracks. Inside it, the rails continued on, flanked on either side by buildings.  
  
As they carefully made their way towards the other peoples’ assumed position, Blake and Ruby’s more sensitive ears began to pick up parts of a conversation.  
  
“You’re even worse than the men I lent to Roman. We need to get all this finished by the end of next week!”  
  
Sadly whom ever had been shouted at replied to meekly for even them to pick up what was said, so instead they relayed what they could understand to the humans of the group. After that they began to move more quickly, hoping to catch the terrorists while in the middle of whatever they were setting up. Rounding the corner of the last building between them and their targets, they were noticed by a man in a black suit, judging by his voice he was most likely the one who had shouted a moment ago.  
  
“Blondie!?” Junior shouted with surprise as Yang step out behind the corner, just as surprised to see the club owner and information broker here as he was to see her.  
  
“Junior?”  
  
While Yang was getting over the surprise of seeing the familiar criminal here of all places, the rest of her team and their teacher observed what else was happening before them.  
  
A number of White Fang members in their uniforms were working on a subway cart together with a few humans wearing Black suits and red ties. Going by the fact that most of them were lying beneath it, next to the wheels, or handing parts and tools to those who did, they were more than likely trying to get the engines up and running.  
  
Turning to his confused underlings, Junior shouted. “What are you guys waiting for? Get them.”  
  
With that thy finally began to get up and rush towards the newest arrivals, some of them holding their heavy tools as clubs, others pulling out hatchets or blades.  
  
At the same time, Ruby began to bark out orders of her own. “ **[** **come and get them]** ” Which resulted in nearly all of her new Grimm charging into the open space between the buildings around them, rushing past the Grimm like girl and her companions.  
  
Seeing the horde of monsters coming straight at them without even looking at the girls they passed by, more than half of the criminals and terrorists stopped their charge, while the other half continued on, undaunted by the Grimm, or just overestimating their own abilities.  
  
Those who closed in with the pack of Beowolves were quickly taken out, but strangely not killed. Instead the Grimm’s attacks were aimed to only break bones or knockout their attackers with as little risk of death as the beasts could manage. A few of the mooks managed to get a few strikes in against their attackers, but none managed to do more than cripple a limb, for which they were soon flung against their closest comrade.  
  
As Ruby continued to direct her pack, the remaining mooks decided to surrender, dropping their weapons in the hopes that they would be left unharmed. While the first few were still smacked over the head by a Grimm, the half Grimm soon realized what was going on and ordered her Grimm to stand down for now.  
  
Seeing his forces surrounded by Grimm and surrendering, Junior raised his arms and spoke.  
  
“Don’t worry, I learned when I need to fold em after our first encounter, Blondie,”  
  
slowly stepping closer to the students he continued, “Besides prison is going to be the safest place I could be from that blackmailing bitch.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
It took quite a while to fashion appropriate bindings from what they had available, but in the end team RWBY, with a little help from Professor Oobleck, managed to restrain them adequately, after which they began to make their way to the closest Subway station still leading to the surface, the unconscious criminals carried by a few of the redhead’s pack members.  
  
Once they were outside, Oobleck stepped aside to make the call to Beacon, and roughly an hour later, an airship landed before them, Ozpin stepping out of it.  
  
“Well I think congratulations are in order.” The Headmaster began, a smile on his face until he noticed the changes miss Rose had gone through. “Do not fear miss Rose, I was fearing something like this was going to happen sooner or later. But I fear with these new changes, it will be nigh impossible to continue keeping your heritage a secret.” Seeing the young girl’s eyes widen in fear, he carefully place hs free hand on her shoulder, feeling a set of hard plates covering it, as he continued. “Do not worry miss Rose, I will have professor Goodwitch prepare a press conference and speeches for both of us to make this reveal as smooth as possible. And if this-” He gestured towards the captured criminals who were slowly boarding the airship. “- is not enough to show them that you are just as willing to help Humanity as anyone else, I will make sure that Beacon will be a safe haven for you. No matter what comes from this, as long as the Academy stands, I will make sure that even half Grimm like you are allowed to finish their training.”  
  
With a deep sigh of relief and a few tears of joy, Ruby hugged the grey haired man before her, careful not to injure him with any of her new bone spikes.  
  
“Thank you professor.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Inside her private chambers, Salem was sitting before a desk made of ebony, her bone white face illuminated by the screen of the scroll laying before her. It had been sent towards her by Cinder and had arrived a few hours ago. On it was the video of a press conference that had taken place a few days prior revealing the true nature of the silver eyed girl Ruby Rose. Seeing this half Grimm standing next to Ozpin, the bony growths of a Beowolf sticking out of her sleeves, she couldn’t help but feel reminded of her own past, all the wary looks the palace servants gave her, the feathered girl. And with the brilliant silver eyes the girl shared with everyone in Salem's family, well except her father, there was no doubt about it that they were related in someway, in addition to the blood of Fafnir flowing in both of their veins.  
  
Rising out of her chair, Salem stepped onto her balcony and let out a loud caw. Soon after that a few bird like Grimm swooped down and hovered before their leader, looking at her expecting more instructions. “ **[** **Go find the Grimmslayer and bring it to my servant.]** ” After bringing up picture of Cinder on the scroll she had taken with ehr to make sure they knew whom she meant, they took off, searching for her family's oldest possession, which had obviously not been handed down to the youngest as was tradition.  
  
Moving back to her desk, Salem propped the scroll up against the wall. before sitting down before it. She had a few recordings to make in addition to the new orders Cinder would receive soon.  
  
Starting the scrolls video recording, Salem began to talk slow and carefully, a hint of joy in her voice not heard for a long time.  
  
“Greetings Ruby Rose, I am Salem Valorious, your sister by blood, grand aunt and …”


	25. Chapter Twentythree

A Grimm Rose

Chapter twentythree

 

A few days later, Ruby and her team were making their way across Beacon’s campus after they had left their last class for the week just a few minutes ago. Because Ruby wanted to check in on her pack, they were making their way towards the path down to Forever Fall forest. The students around them were eyeing Ruby carefully, some radiating fear, others hatred, but none actually tried to approach her, remembering the heavy punishments Ozpin had promised to those who let their actions be directed by the knowledge what the half Grimm actually was.  
  
When the four girls were crossing the courtyard where the headmaster had held the press conference to reveal Ruby’s secret to the public, the redheads mind wandered back to the different reaction she had been met with afterwards. While most students she had befriended beforehand were angry that she had kept her true nature from them, but were trying their best to treat her like they always had nonetheless.  
  
What had surprised Ruby was how the members of the Vale police that had been invited as additional security, among them officer Viridian, had turned on them and would more than likely have tried to take her in there and then on charges of endangering the public by leading grimm into the City, as well as for all the times she gave a false testimony claiming to be a Faunus, if it hadn’t been for Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch standing in their way, and the Headmaster pointing out that Beacon was technically not under the police’s purview as it was not part of the City of Vale. Even so they promised to take her in the next time she would set foot in the city, ‘for the public’s safety’.  
  
The most surprising Reaction to the revelation though was the call she had received from Tukson the day after.  
  
  
_Ruby was lying on her bed, still saddened by how badly everything had went. Even her friends were secretly afraid of her now, although they did not try to show it, with only very limited success seeing as she could literally taste it radiating from them. When her scroll began to ring she quickly picked up, and asked. “Hello, who is this?”_  
  
“Ah Hello Ruby, it’s Tukson.” The calling Faunus replied before he continued, his voice seemingly in a sympathetic tone. “I just read what happened yesterday in the Newspaper, and wanted to offer to either have Blake pick up your orders or send them to you in Beacon as it seems you won’t be able to come get them yourself for a while.”  
  
Hearing this seemingly genuine offer of help, Ruby began to shed a few tears as she replied.  
  
“Tha- thank you, but why would you do that, don’t you think I am a monster.”  
  
“No, not only did you save my life, but if I were to turn my back on you, just because you have a few more animal-like traits, I would be no better than the human racist I worked against when I was still with the White Fang.”  
  
With this proclamation, Ruby lost the grip on her scroll, which fell onto her mattress, as she began to cry more tears of joy, until she remembered that Tukson had not ended the call, and picked up her scroll again.  
  
“You can’t imagine how much that means to me Tukson, everyone else who learned what I am yesterday is now afraid of me. And it would be awesome if you could have my orders sent to Beacon from now on.”  
  
“Well then take care of yourself and don’t worry I am sure your friends will come around.”  
  
  
The young half Grimm was torn from her thoughts as the sound of metal parts sliding against each other and a set of approaching stepps reached her canine ears. Noting that both set of noises were coming from her right and rapidly getting closer, she raised her right arm to intercept an incoming blow with its bone spikes. As she turned to look, Ruby hastened her movements, barely managing to block the sword closing in on her. Noticing the detailing identifying it as her uncles weapon, the wolf tailed redhead grabbed Crescent Rose with ehr free hand as she used her Semblance to disengage and get some space and time to fully deploy her weapon. As the petals created by her Semblance were obscuring her vision, Ruby prepared to defend against the attack her uncle was more than likely already starting.  
  
But when the petals had scattered enough for her to see Qrow again, she was more than surprised to see him tackled to the ground by a pair of white and blue Beowolves. Stepping closer her claws clacked on the stone beneath her as she barked furiously at the strange Grimm.  
  
“ **[He’s my prey let him go]** ” But even after repeating a few times more, they were not listening to her, as if they couldn’t even understand her, which prompted Ruby to take a look around. First she took note of ehr teammates standing close by. While Yang was used to uncle Qrow’s ‘greeting by sparring’ and thus had her arms crossed before her, slightly disappointed that the show had been interrupted, Blake was obviously still trying to understand what was going on. Weiss on the other hand was staring at something behind Ruby with a very pleased expression, prompting the pawed girl to turn around.  
  
“My- miss Rose, are you alright?” Winter Schnee asked the half Grimm as she finished turning around, her saber held forward as if to direct the strange Grimm, a white Glyph hanging in the air behind her. “Did that drunkard injure you before I was able to intervene?”  
  
As the words reached Ruby’s ears, realization spread over the lower half of her face.  
  
“Wait are those your Beowolves pinning down my Uncle?” the girl in the red cloak asked while she lowered her scythe for the moment.  
  
While Winter was a tad confused by how the redhead had replied to her assistance, a pair of howls escaped the white Beowolves as Qrow finally managed to free himself of them. severing each head with a quick swing of his head.  
  
“Were her Beowolves.” He corrected his niece as he stood up fully. “Now come here and give your uncle a hug. That stuck up Atlesian sell out ruined my mood.”  
  
As she moved over, Ruby let out an annoyed growl before answering to the Huntsman. “Aw but I was looking forward to showing you how much more butt I can kick now.” But despite her complaints, she folded her scythe back up in its most compact form and returned it to just above her tail before giving her uncle a Hug, careful not to tear his grey shirt with her claws.  
  
“I am sorry that I miss judged this situation yo- team leader Rose, is there anything I can do to make up for this?” Winter asked the young redhead as she approached the small family reunion, sheathing her weapon and, to the surprise to everyone present, bowing before them.  
  
“Hm, do you have any good ideas Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked her uncle, unsure how to respond to the white haired woman's question.  
  
“I could think of one thing.” The Huntsman said loudly before he whispered into the half Grimm’s canine ear. Nodding along to her uncle’s explanation, Ruby let out a few short giggles, before she turned to look at the Atlesian specialist and spoke up, doing her best to keep from laughing any more and barely succeeding.  
  
“Well as you disturbed our contest of physical prowess.” The redhead began, doing her best to sound like Weiss when she was on one of her rants about proper etiquette or something similar, while a grin began to spread over what little of her face was clearly visible. “I would like for you to participate in a contest of Alcohol tolerance against Qrow Branwen.”  
  
Hearing those words, Yang began to snicker, while everyone else was only getting confused over the strange request. “Which shall be witnessed by the entirety of my team.”  
  
Once she had finished, Qrow scratched her behind the ears, as Winter stood straight again, her face radiating utter confusion as she spoke again.  
  
“Of course my- miss Rose,” An answer that seemed to surprise everyone even more than the suggestion of the drinking contest itself. The first to recover from the shock and actually speak was Weiss, who was moving closer to her sibling.  
  
“Sister, why would you agree to such a thing so readily?” The white haired student asked, waving a hand towards the half Grimm and her uncle, both of whom were slowly starting to grin even brighter.  
  
“I did just attack a member of your team leader's family, without any information as to what was happening. And even so, humiliating him in a contest of his choice is definitely better than what the General would have me do as punishment should he learn of this incident.” She replied to her sister after a short moment before she turned towards the Huntsman and continued. “As part of the agreement was to let these students witness our drinking contest, would it be acceptable if we were to hold it aboard my airship?”  
  
After taking a short breath to keep himself from laughing, Qrow stepped closer to Winter as he replied.  
  
“Sounds like a good idea, I don’t want to find out what Glynda would do to us if we were to drink before students on Campus.” Pulling out his flask and giving it a short shake, only to find out it was empty, Qrow continued. “Now if you girls would excuse me, I need to go buy some spirits.”  
  
“Later Uncle Qrow!” Ruby shouted excitedly as the Huntsman turned to walk away, waving to his nieces.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
“Specialist Schnee would you please wake up?” Penny said as she shook Winter once more, careful not to hit her own head on the barrels of the cannon she had found the specialist lying next to. Luckily this time the woman’s eyes fluttered open, to the great relief of the android standing next to her.  
  
“Ugh, could it wait just a few more minutes?” The specialist replied, bringing a hand up to her pounding skull to shield her eyes from the sunlight, “and could someone turn down all that excited cheering?”  
  
“But Specialist Schnee, you need to get to the opening ceremony of the Vytal Tournament, you are supposed to represent Atlas.” The orange haired girl at her side replied as she pulled a duffle bag closer before continuing. “As your squire I took the liberty to prepare an outfit for you shortly after I noticed you were not inside your own quarters, after which I began to search for you.”  
  
“Wait how long do we have until the Ceremony starts?” Winter asked, surprised at the fact that Penny had found it necessary to start searching for her.  
  
“It already has, but we have another fifteen minutes before the footage of the past Vytal tournaments finishes playing and Ozpin starts his welcome speech, which you need to be present for.” The android informed her as she carefully removed the pieces of her superior’s dress uniform form the bag next to her. without any more words, Penny helped Winter get dressed as quickly as possible and , barely ten minutes later the specialist had made her way behind the stage where Ozpin’s speech would take place, slightly out of breath as she had used her glyphs to manage this. Peering through the curtain, Winter noticed Qrow Branwen standing next to his niece and her team at the front of the crowd, seemingly no worse for wear in contrast to herself.  
  
When the time finally came for her to step on stage next to the teachers serving as chaperones for the student’s from Haven and Shade, Winter noticed that her little sister was avoiding her gaze, an embarrassed pink tint on her cheeks.  
  
‘Just what did we end up doing last night?’ The older Schnee asked herself, standing as still as she could manage while hiding the pain caused by the amplified sound of Ozpin's speech. When the speech finally came to its conclusion, she made her way back to her quarters as quickly as she could manage, trying to keep away from the crowds to reduce the amount of noise her hungover ears had to endure.  
  
As she stepped in front of the door to her sleeping quarters, she saw a thick envelope attached to it with a strip of duct tape with her name written on it. Taking it inside with her, she summoned a tiny nevermore and plucked one of its razor sharp feathers to cut open the envelope. Dismissing her summon, she pulled the contents out of the envelope and was surprised to find a collection of printed out photos of what had happened after she had let Qrow and team RWBY aboard last night.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thank you for reading, and if any of you have ideas for what those pictures show, just type it up and send it to me and I'll include it at the end of this chapter by next week.


	26. Chapter vigintiquattuor

 

 

>  
> 
> A Grimm Rose  
>  Chapter vigintiquattuor
> 
>   
> Ruby was lost in thought, reminiscing about her last visit to her mother’s grave, just before she had been invited to Beacon. The red furred half Grimm had planned to visit it again around this time of the year. But with her whole family, team and even Ozpin advising against it, the young redhead had forgone her plans.
> 
> Instead she was now sitting in professor Oobleck’s office, the door locked to ensure their privacy as he continue to ramble on while taking measurements of Ruby’s various Grimm like features. He even tried his best to sketch out a presumed layout for the Bones in her paws, bemoaning the lack of an X-ray machine he could have used.
> 
> Once he had finished that, he motioned for the half Grimm to sit down more comfortably again while he went over the data he had collected on his scroll.
> 
> “Hm, Interesting,” and similar things were mumbled as he adjusted a few slides and looked over the changing numbers on the screen.
> 
> “Pro- Doctor what is so interesting?” the wolf tailed girl asked curiously, moving her chair a bit closer to the professor's desk. The green haired Huntsman looked up at his student after she spoke up, taking a short moment to order his thoughts before replying.
> 
> “Well miss Rose, I am looking over the measurements I took of the bones growing from your arms and back, comparing them to those of a scaled down Beowolf.” As he turned around the Scroll so Ruby could see the simple model of a beowulf, a few sets of numbers written next to it, pointing to different parts of its body.
> 
> “Nearly all of the features you share with the wolf like Grimm are the same size they would be on an alpha Beowolf of your size. The only exception are the spikes growing along your spine, which are roughly a fourth the size of what they would be on the shrunken Grimm.”
> 
> “Is that bad?” Ruby asked concerned, a hand trailing along the just mentioned protrusions on her back, as her her tail slowly swished from side to side. “I mean if they were any longer, sitting down on chairs would be a problem for example.” ‘Not to mention how difficult wearing my cloak would be’ The grimm faced girl finished in her thoughts, her free hand slightly gripping onto the red fabric of the garment that reminded her so much of her mother.
> 
> “That is most certainly true, but the question remains why are they this way? Were you able to subconsciously influence their growth? Are they just this way because you are only part Beowulf, or did they simply not finish growing?” The Professor began to ramble questions and possible answers to this conundrum but was soon interrupted by a ringing coming from his scroll. “But it seems we need to make our way to Amity Colosseum now. After all I believe your team has the first match of today.”
> 
> After a short nod from the redhead the two of them left the professor's office, before he escorted his half Grimm student through the halls of Beacon. Along the way, reactions to Ruby were varied, as they had been for the last few days. Most of the exchange students she passed regarded her much like they would any normal Grimm, hate and animosity in their eyes, all of which the wolf eared girl took in eagerly, as it made for a nice snack just before her first and sadly only match in the Vytal tournament.
> 
> But what really hurt Ruby were the looks filled with distrust and suspicion coming from her fellow Beacon students, many of whom had been friendly to her before hand despite being a ‘Faunus’. Only a select few, all of whom had befriended the Grimm like girl before her secret had been revealed, tried to give her encouraging looks, but even so Ruby could taste the hints of fear coming of them. Despite that, Ruby was glad that there were at least a few people who tried to see her as the same Weapons loving geek and scythe-prodigy she had always been.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~
> 
>  
> 
> Standing opposite of team RWBY were the members of ABRN from Haven, after Ruby had shaken the hand of the dark skinned blonde that led the other teams, each of them had moved back to stand with their teams while the terrain for their match was determined. Using the time to take in her opponents, the half Grimm first noticed the green haired girl riding a hoverboard that must have been her weapon, seeing as they had not been allowed to bring anything else as far as equipment went. Slightly behind her stood a tall black haired boy wielding what appeared to be just a simple quarterstaff, or was it a bo staff? The wolf eared girl had never quite understood what the difference was supposed to be. While the leader appeared to be unarmed, the last member of their team at least wielded a normal weapon, a bayoneted rifle that might just shift into a sword some form of spear.
> 
> Ripping her gaze from their opponents, the girl standing on paws looked at the indicators that now displayed the terrain they would fight on. A frozen glacier field began to rise to their left, simultaneously with what appeared to be a scorching hot lava field on the other side, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose from her back, and as this was supposed to be a tournament between the best each school had to offer, she felt no qualms about unfolding it into its massive scythe form, confident the other students would be able to adapt to such a weapon.
> 
> Once the terrain modules had risen into position, a short countdown heralded the beginning of the match. When the fight began with the sound of a simple horn, Ruby and Blake immediately began to move, with the goal of ending on flanking positions against the enemies formation. Meanwhile Yang took position in front of Weiss for the moment to intercept any enemies that tried to engage her, as the heiress behind her began to assail their opponents with elementals attacks, joined once or twice by an explosive bullet from Ember Cecilia.
> 
> Shortly after she made it halfway through the ice covered half of the arena, Blake nearly run over by the girl on a hoverboard, barely reacting quick enough to use her Semblance to get out of the way and let one of her clones take the hit.
> 
> At nearly the same time, Ruby had been intercepted by the enemies staff wielder, who had immediately tried to knock her of her paws. The half Grimm quickly embedded the tip of her scythes blade in the ice before her, and instead of falling down, used her remaining momentum to kick her opponent in the stomach. After landing on her paws once more, she freed her weapon form the ice, she barely managed to bring it up in time to deflect her opponents next attack. While it would have been easier, and much quicker as well, to use her new spikes to do so, she was here to show the world that, despite her new appearance she was just another student at Beacon, using her new natural, or in most eyes unnatural, weapons would just underline how different she had become.
> 
> With a mighty overhead swing of Crescent rose, she slammed her opponent away for the moment, which the team leader immediately used to see how the rest of her team was doing. Seeing the rifle wielding boy trying to sneak up on her sister, who was currently fighting the other team's leader, Ruby quickly switched magazines and fired a bullet laced with Ice dust at his feet, freezing him in place for the moment.
> 
>  _‘This fight is going to be harder than I thought’_ the redhead mused as she shouted “Got your back sis.”
> 
> Hearing both her own opponent and Weiss approach her position, Ruby turned around trying her best to come up with a way to win this fight.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~
> 
>  
> 
> Just as the half Grimm had expected, the fight had been tough but in the end Yang, with the assistance of the rest of the team, had managed to punch the remaining enemies hard enough to knock them across the arena and their Aura reserves into the red, securing their victory.
> 
> Now the four of them were strolling through the fairgrounds on Beacon’s campus, looking for somewhere to grab a bite to eat. Noticing someone tipping on her shoulder, Ruby turned around slowly as the rest of her team moved on for a bit, and came face to face with a red eyed girl with dark skin, holding out the half Grimm’s scroll.
> 
> “Oh Emerald, from Cinder’s team right?” Ruby asked, surprised by the lack of fear and hatred coming from the other student.
> 
> “Yeah that would be me.” Emerald replied before putting Ruby’s scroll back into its owner’s hands. “I just saw this slip out of your pocket and thought I should pick it up for you.”
> 
> Carefully checking the pouches on her belt, the wolf tailed girl put the device away, making sure it wouldn’t fall out again.
> 
> “Oh thank you, say do you want to join us, we are getting something to eat to celebrate our victory.”
> 
> Rubbing her neck, the dark skinned girl replied. “That is a kind offer, but I promised Mercury we would watch the other matches together to be better prepared for the doubles round.”
> 
> As the words left her mouth, Emerald stopped rubbing her neck and, with her eyes widening continued. “I should not have said that.”
> 
> After a short moment spent deliberating how to calm down the other girl, Ruby leaned forwards to whisper into her ear. “Well, you don’t know this from me, but we are going to send Yang and Weiss to the next round.”
> 
> “Why would you share that with me?” Emerald exclaimed surprised as she took a step back.
> 
> “I thought it would bring us on even footing.” Ruby answered, tipping her index fingers’ claws against each other. After a short shake of her head, Emerald waved to Ruby as she began to catch up to her nearby, gray haired teammate.
> 
> Turning around herself, the half grimm soon caught up to the rest of her team, who were lead by Yang, who turned around as her sister approached.
> 
> “So who were you talking to Ruby?”
> 
> “One of the students from Mistral picked up my scroll after I dropped it.” The redhead quickly replied to her sister, not quite meeting the blonde’s eyes. “Where are we headed?”
> 
> “I know for a fact that my favourite noodle restaurant is selling their noodles somewhere here.” Yang replied with a smile on her lips. a few steps later her eyes lit up in recognition and she motioned for her companions to sit down at the counter of a small hut.
> 
> “The usual please” Yang said to the old man on the other side of the counter, who gave a short nod before turning to Ruby.
> 
> “I’ll take the same” The half Grimm said, knowing that anything Yang ate often enough to be ‘the usual’ couldn’t be that far off for her own taste.
> 
> It took a while for Weiss and Blake to settle on what to order, Weiss pulled out her credit card to pay.
> 
> “It’s on me, as a thank you for trusting me to represent us in the doubles round.” Weiss informed her teammates as she took the card back from the old man, who stepped into the small kitchen setup in the back of the hut before returning with four bowls filled with noodles, one noticeably topped with what seemed to be whole fishes.
> 
> “Let’s dig in” Ruby proclaimed before she started fumbling around with the provided sticks, having problems using the eating implements with her claws.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~
> 
>  
> 
> Later that day, Ruby was laying back in her bed, listening to some music on her scroll with her headphones on s as not to disturb Weiss in her studying, when a short ‘ding’ interrupted her music. Looking at her scroll’s screen, Ruby noticed a notification saying ’download complete’ but before Ruby could do anything a video began to play, showing a woman with bone white skin laced with dark veins. Her eyes were as red as those of the Grimm and framed by a few strands of hair as white as her skin.
> 
> “Greetings Ruby Rose, I am Salem Valorious, your sister by blood, grand aunt and the rightful queen of Vale. Now before you may wonder how I can claim we are sisters while I am your aunt. The answer is that in both of our veins flows the long spilled blood of Fafnir.”
> 
> As Salem was saying this, her face grew out into the mask of a Nevermore, while her white hair was slowly replaced by seemingly black feathers.
> 
> “I am very sorry that I could not be there for you or your mother, like a family should, but I only learned of your existence a little while ago, and could only confirm your identity thanks to Ozpin revealing your secret.To make this up to you, I have prepared four gifts for you. The first is the order to all my still loyal subjects and knights to heed your orders as if they were my own. The other gifts might not be ready by the time you receive this message, so I trust my allies in Beacon and Vale to hand them to you once they are finished.”
> 
> With that the video ended, the picture of Salem smiling still on Ruby’s scroll. Confused, the half Grimm lay in her bed for a while longer until a knock on the door pulled her back to reality.
> 
> “It’s open, just come in.” Yang yelled.
> 
> Immediately afterwards the door opened, and Winter Schnee and Penny Polendina stepped into the girls dorm room. Closing the door behind them, they moved towards Ruby, ignoring Weiss attempt to greet her older sister. Kneeling before the wolf tailed girl like a knight before his sire, they lowered their heads as Winter spoke up. “Lady Rose, we were informed you finally learned the truth about your relationship with the Queen.”
> 
> As the words sunk in, all members of team RWBY were struck silent.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you all enjoyed, if not please tell me why, if you did, a comment would still be nice.  
> Thanks for reading, see you next week.  
>  


	27. Chapter 27

 

 

>  
> 
> A Grimm Rose  
>  Chapter Ni juu go
> 
>   
> The first to recover was Weiss, who walked over towards her sister as she spoke up.
> 
> “Winter what is the meaning of this? What queen are you talking about? And why are you calling that dolt ‘Lady Rose’?”
> 
> Not even turning away to look at her younger sibling, Winter addressed the half Grimm before her.
> 
> “Please excuse my younger sister’s lack of manners your highness.” Only after this did she turn towards Weiss and continued. “The meaning of this is simple. Like our grandfather and his father before him, I am upholding our family's duty to the order of the Silver Rose and the royal family of Vale and our rightful Queen Salem Valorious, who has been kept from her place on Vale’s throne of Vale by the actions of her younger brother. As for your last question, despite the fact that she is the offspring of the self proclaimed ‘last King of Vale’, her Majesty has decreed that Lady Rose shall be as if she were the queen’s own offspring as she does not want to blame the children for the sins of their forefather.”
> 
> Hearing this, Yang stood up from her bed and moved closer to take part in the conversation.
> 
> “Wait my little sis is supposed to be some kind of princess then? How would you even know about that?” Yang demanded to know as she stepped behind her half sister, who was still very confused by what was going on around her, tail hanging limp from her behind.
> 
> “The most obvious giveaway are her silver eyes, as the only known people that had this trait before the last king went into hiding, were the Queen, her mother and her younger brother.”
> 
> Winter replied before cutting of a sigh, she was already feeling frustrated with this conversation, but she would do her best not to show this before the young half Grimm.
> 
> As Ruby took in the woman kneeling before her, the redhead finally recovered enough from the surprise to speak once more.
> 
> “So that legend about the knights of the Silver Rose was really true?”
> 
> “Depending on what version you read, but yes most of them are true.” Winter replied without hesitation.
> 
> “And Salem really is a half Grimm like me?” Ruby asked, sliding down from where she was sitting on her bed.
> 
> “Yes that is indeed true, although her traits are not as obvious as yours if she doesn’t want them to be.” The elder Schnee answered again, doing her best to sound friendly to the young royal before her.
> 
> “So, Penny how do you fit into all of this?” Ruby asked as she took a step closer to her mechanical friend, the confused expression not yet fully gone from the skin covered parts of her face.
> 
> Before she answered, Penny quickly glanced at Winter, who just gave the android a short nod.
> 
> “During my first year as a student at Atlas, Knight Schnee saw my prowess with blades and my quick mind and after she pulled some strings in the military to be assigned as the person in charge of my development, took me on as her squire. Since then I have been training under her and helped carry out her duties to the Order to the best of my abilities.”
> 
> As Ruby finally managed to shake the rest of her confusion, she realized that the rest of her team might be lost because none of them had seen the video she had received on her scroll.
> 
> Sitting down next to Weiss on the white haired girls bed, the wolf eared girl waved Blake and Yang over and as they squeezed next to their teammates, Ruby brought up the video once more to show it to her team.
> 
> Once it was over, Blake began to speak, slightly unsure of herself, scratching the bow hiding her cat ears.
> 
> “I think we should inform Headmaster Ozpin about this.”
> 
> When the rest of the team agreed with her suggestion, they moved to leave, nearly forgetting about the two other persons still in the room with them. Turning towards them Ruby, her tail swishing nervously from side to side, addressed the two Atlesians.
> 
> “You can just go and continue whatever you did before coming here.”
> 
> “As you wish Lady Rose.” Winter replied as she stood up and left the room, quickly followed by Penny. Leaving the room after them, team RWBY made their way towards the headmasters office.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~~~~~
> 
>  
> 
> Ozpin was sitting behind his desk, a cup of the strongest coffee you could get on Beacon’s Campus sitting next to the, thankfully by now small, pile of paperwork he had yet to finish this evening. Laying down his pen, he picked up his drink and was just about to take a sip from his cup when Glynda’s voice came over the intercom.
> 
> _“Professor, team RWBY is here to see you, saying they have something important to share with you.”_
> 
> Setting down his cup without drinking from it, Ozpin pressed the button on the intercom so he could reply to Glynda.
> 
> “Very well, just send them up please.”
> 
> As the elevator was taking the girls up towards him, the grey haired professor quickly stored the remaining paperwork in one of his desk’s empty drawers. Looking up at the small sign above the elevator doors, he still had enough time to take a short drink from his coffee. Just as he put the cup back down, a soft *ding* announced the elevator car’s arrival.
> 
> As the girls stepped into his office, Ozpin leaned slightly back into his chair as he greeted them.
> 
> “Hello girls, what brings you here this late?”
> 
> Stepping in front of the rest of her team, Ruby pulled out her scroll and placed it onto the headmasters desk as she began to share what had happened in their dorm room not long ago, while she played the video of Salem for him.
> 
> Once she had finished Ozpin stood up and began to pace behind his desk.
> 
> “What you have here is the first concrete evidence I saw in a long time that Salem is still alive and out there somewhere. And I have been suspecting that there might have been a connection between your mother and the last King of Vale.”
> 
> As he paused shortly to drink from his coffee, the half grimm spoke up.
> 
> “Why?”
> 
> Setting his cup back down Ozpin replied carefully.
> 
> “Well for one when the king vanished after establishing the academies, it was assumed he lived out the rest of his live in some small village at the border of Vale, while your mother, who shared his silver eyes came from a small village somewhere in Vale.”
> 
> After he finished, Yang stepped next to her younger sister as she asked her own question.
> 
> “Is there anything you can tell us about this ‘Salem’ and what she wants with my little sis?”
> 
> “Not much I am afraid. We only learned about her possible survival a few decades ago. And even then we were not sure if it was really her or someone using her name that started to work at bringing down the Huntsmen academies.”
> 
> The professor replied truthfully with a frown on his face.
> 
> “So what can we do about her, now that we have more information?”
> 
> Weiss inquired, leaning slightly forward with her hands on Ozpin’s desk.
> 
> “You should get ready for your match in the doubles round the day after tomorrow. With how she addressed Ruby in this video message, I believe she won’t try anything big while Ruby is still at Beacon.”
> 
> Silencing the girls upcoming protests with a simple raise of his hand, he continued.
> 
> “It is important that things like this do not reach the public, lest they cause a panic that draws in huge numbers of Grimm. Now I suggest you for go and head back to your beds, so you can spend tomorrow training.”
> 
> He waited until team RWBY had said their goodbyes and left his office again, before he drained his still half full cup in a single sip as he fell into his chair. A moment later he leaned forward to activate the intercom.
> 
> “Glynda, please cancel all my appointments for tomorrow, I need to visit an old friend of mine who lives on the very border of the Kingdom.”  
>    
>  _“Very well sir, but might I ask who you need to visit so suddenly?”_
> 
> “I promised not to tell anyone about him, but I am sure he needs to hear about this as soon as possible.”
> 
>  
> 
>  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you all enjoyed, if not please tell me why.


	28. Chapter ventisei

 

 

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter ventisei

  
  
  
Early the next morning, Ozpin was boarding a small airship that would take him to the base of the mountain range at the edge of Vale’s territory. A few hours later the pilot landed the bullhead in a clearing close to the mountains to let the headmaster disembark. Once the pilot had taken off and Ozpin was alone, save for the few wild animals prowling through the forest around him, the grey haired man began his trek towards and up the mountain before him, his trusty cane in hand.  
  
The hike to his destination halfway up the mountain’s slope gave him time to contemplate what had led him here for the first time since he became the headmaster of Beacon. Not only had one of his most promising students been forced to reveal her nature as a half Grimm to the public, but she had also presented him with evidence that Salem was indeed still alive, and maybe even behind a few of the problems the Huntsmen Academies were facing from within and without.  
  
About two hours later, Ozpin arrived at his destination, a cave entrance about twice as tall as the headmaster. Despite the worn down and weathered appearance of the Cave, Ozpin knew that it had not formed naturally. It had been carved into the rock by its occupant millenia ago, before Vale was even a tiny fishing village on the coast of Sanus.  
  
A few hundred meters into the cave, Ozpin arrived in a wider cavern, in its center a table and a pair of benches formed by the same rock as the ground.  
  
“Greetings Fafnir” Ozpin spoke loudly as he sat down on one of the benches facing deeper into the cave. This was followed by loud grinding and rumbling sounds deeper in the cave, before the darkness before the old man parted to reveal the glowing red Iris of a Grimm half the size of the cave itself.  
  
“Hello Ozpin.” A voice echoed through the cave, it’s sound reminiscent of boulders being ground to gravel. “Can you tell me why Summer and her little pup haven’t visited me once over the last decade? They used to come visit at least twice a year before.”  
  
Hearing these words, Ozpin was surprised, but a moment later he realized something. ‘Of course he doesn’t know, Summer and I were the only ones who knew where to find him.’  
  
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news.” Ozpin began, his face filled with a frown and his gaze avoiding Fafnir’s eye. “Summer died about 12 years ago on a mission.”  
  
As the words reached the ancient Grimm’s ears, the giant eye before Ozpin began to fill with tears while the Fafnir’s low sobbing caused the whole mountain to shake slightly.  
  
“Please tell, *sob* that her little one is still alive.” The dragon Grimm barely managed to say between his sobbing. “I don’t know how I could go on with nothing left behind of my little Rakka and my Rose.”  
  
“Ruby Rose is in good health for a teenaged half Grimm, at least as far as we can tell. She is also one of Beacon’s most promising first year students.”  
  
Like a switch had been flipped over, Fafnir’s demeanor changed immediately, blinking away the few tears still in his eye that began to shrink slowly.  
  
“In that case I will have to accompany you back so I can see the little Beowulf again.” As he continued his eye closed and his now visible maw stretched into an approximation of a smile. “I can still remember how the little pup was chasing after her own tail a few times during their visits. I wonder how much she has changed.”  
  
Pulling out his scroll, Ozpin decided that telling Fafnir about Salem could wait a little longer, he looked for what pictures and videos he had of the half Grimm.  
  
“See for yourself.” The human suggested as he held out the scroll so the ancient Grimm had an easier time inspecting the pictures.  
  
As the originally titanic Grimm continued to shrink, not taking his eye, and a few moments later both of them, of the screen.  
  
“Look at her, just as adorable as when she wondered why biting her own tail hurt.” Fafnir said, his voice starting to sound more and more human.  
  
A couple of minutes later Fafnir stepped closer to Ozpin, now close to a human in size, his skin as white as the bones covering most of his body like a knight’s armor. Only his head was fully uncovered, his sharp fangs poking through the pure white hairs making up the beard that fell half way down to his waist.  
  
“But knowing you there was something else you came here to tell me.” The now surprisingly human like Grimm said as he sat down opposite of Ozpin.  
  
“Yes, I actually wanted to show you something else.” Ozpin said as he looked up the video Ruby had shown him the evening before.  
  
“Ah so little Salem is still alive as well? That is great news indeed, I can’t recall the last time I met the little bird.” The ancient Grimm commented, a hand stroking through his beard before standing up again. “If that is all, let us move out. After all Vale is many miles away and we can talk more along the way.”  
  
With a short nod, Ozpin rose as well and moved to follow the ancient Grimm out of the cave.  
  
“So how are the young women you cursed with unimaginable power doing?”  
  
“We lost Fall not long ago and we have yet to find the Winter maiden once again after Summer died.”  
  
At the second admission, Fafnir let out a hearty laugh.  
  
“But you showed me a picture of her today. You did pass Summer’s weapon down to the little pup, didn’t you?” The ancient Grimm asked his old friend, causing Ozpin to stumble on the trail down the mountain.  
  
“What would Summer’s weapon have to do with the Maidens?” The headmaster asked confused.  
  
“All these years it didn’t strike you as strange that the Winter maiden was always a descendant of Rakka?” Fafnir asked carefully, stopping next to him for the moment.  
  
“Not really, the others passed their powers down along a family for a few generations from time to time.” Ozpin replied, curious as to what his companion tried to allude to.  
  
“Well I did not know about that.” The ancient Grimm admitted. “Well you see after she was banished from her village for receiving and using the powers you cursed those girls with, Rakka came to me asking for help. Not long after she attached the powers to a blade she forged, so no one else would be forced to recieve them after her death.”  
  
“How could she manage to do something like that?” Ozpin exclaimed surprised, his eyes widened form the mere idea.  
  
“Well the blade was made from steel alloyed with all the dust we could find and my own blood.” Fafnir answered before continuing more quietly, his face filled with guilt. “And I might have let her use the artifact of creation.” His gaze fell to the ground as he admitted that he had let a human use the Artifact he had been protecting all this time.  
  
“Great so the powers of the Winter Maiden are part of the blade passed down by the Silver Eyed Warriors, which was lost alongside Summer Rose.” Ozpin replied carefully, pressing his index finger into Fafnir’s chest.  
  
“If you had told me about this sooner, we could have had the new Maiden trained and ready a decade ago!”  
  
Hearing this accusation, Fafnir let out a deep sigh before he replied.  
  
“Well that depends on if you think you could teach a six year old, I think, half Grimm to wield the powers and shoulder the responsibilities of a maiden.”  
  
“So it’s at least not possible for anyone to access them just by holding the blade?” Ozpin asked hopeful.  
  
“As far as I am aware only a descendant of the last wielder can access the powers.” Fafnir admitted as the pair began to move down the mountain once again.  
  
“Well then let us hope we can find Summer’s old blade soon.”  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Ruby was currently lying in her bed, bored beyond measure. All morning long she and Blake had fought against Weiss and Yang so they could further improve their teamwork for their tournament fight the next day. They had trained in the Forever Fall forest, with Ruby’s pack of Beowolves making sure no one could spy on them. But when the rest of her team had moved on to study what information they had on their potential opponents in the library, the half Grimm had declined, instead she had retired to their dorm and laid down to relax her sore muscles for a while. Now well rested and eager for something to do, the wolf tailed girl couldn’t decide what she wanted to actually do when a short knock came from the door.  
  
“It’s open, just come in.” The redhead said as she slipped out of her bed and down to the floor. As the door opened, Penny stepped in and curtsied towards Ruby before she spoke up.  
  
“Lady Rose, Knight Schnee sent me to escort you to her, as she and Knight Fall have received something they are supposed to hand over to you.”  
  
“Okay? Also, Penny I’m still just your friend Ruby, no need for all this ‘Lady Rose’ stuff.” Ruby replied as she began to follow Penny out of the room, her paws nearly silent on the floor.  
  
“If you wish, Friend Ruby.” With those words Penny began to lead the half Grimm out of the dorm building and across Beacon’s campus. Soon they had entered Winter’s airship and moved to a part seemingly closed of from most people on board. When they stopped before a small door, the android motioned for the half Grimm to go first.  
  
Inside the room behind the door, Ruby noticed Winter Schnee and, if her memory was right, Cinder Fall standing at attention on either side of a jellyfish like Grimm, which held something the redhead couldn’t quite make out in its tentacles, while the black dome showed the image of Salem, sitting in a black throne.  
  
“It is an honor to finally introduce myself properly to you Lady Rose, I am Knight Fall at your service.” Cinder introduced herself, but once Ruby recognized the sword rifle held by the Grimm before her, she began to tear up slightly, ignoring the three other people in the room completely.  
  
There in the thin red appendages of the creature was Thorn, her mother’s black and white blade, crisscrossed by red veins. Without any words Ruby stepped forward and gently took the swords handle, hefting the weapons weight as it was meant to for the first time in her life.  
  
“Greetings my niece, I hope you like the second gift I had prepared for you.” Salem began to address the girl, who looked up from the blade, revealing her tear stained mask to the woman talking through the Oracle.  
  
“Th-thank yo-you, this we-weapon meant so so much to mom.” Ruby barely managed to say between the tears and slight sobbing the reminder of Summer Rose caused the little half Grimm.  
  
“Think nothing of it little Ruby, after all the Grimmblade in this sword, and all it entails, is rightfully yours.” Salem continued to speak, trying her best to sound cheerful to help the young girl before her, even though her voice was not used to it.  
  
“What do you mean?” Ruby asked, slowly calming down somewhat.  
  
“Just put one of your hands onto the blade itself and I promise you will soon understand.”  
  
Uncertain what the other half Grimm meant, Ruby carefully placed one of her hands on the blade itself, careful not to scratch it with her claws or cut herself on the edge. For a short moment it felt like the blade would suck her Aura into itself, but then the flow of energy reversed, filling the girl with more energy than she ever had, which felt strangely warm and cold, like coming home on a cold winter evening.  
  
At the same time her senses were overwhelmed with a decades worth of sorrow and fear. This, for now unnoticed by Ruby herself, caused her skin to lose all its color until it was just as white as the bone mask covering half her face, while her eyes were soon just like those of every other Grimm, a blood red Iris on a otherwise black eyeball.  
  
_‘Ruby is that you?’_  
  
As everyone else noticed the changes the girl went through and gasped, the redhead thought she had heard her mother’s voice for a moment.  
  
“Mom?” The younger half Grimm asked, looking around the bare room confused.  
  
“Knight Schnee could you get my niece a mirror so she can see what happened to herself?”  
  
_‘I am here my little Alpha’_  
  
Once again Ruby thought she could hear her mother talking, this time simultaneous with Salem. Even more confused now, the wolf tailed girl decided to just wait for Winter to return.  
  
When the Specialist returned, she gave the mirror to Penny, who held it up o Ruby could inspect all the changes that had taken place. Seeing herself look that much more like the older half Grimm surprised Ruby a bit, but what really shocked her were the red flames floating around her eyes, a hint of black moving through them from time to time.  
  
She was brought out of her shocked state by the sound of metal hitting the floor before her. Looking down towards her feet, she saw a set of parts that were a perfect match for the bits and pieces making up Crescent Rose’s blade, except that they had the same Black white and red coloration as the blade of her mother’s sword, which she just noticed was no longer attached to the grip.  
  
With panic filling her voice, the young half Grimm shouted. “What- what just happened to Thorn?” _‘It’s alright Ruby’_  
  
“The Grimmslayer has been passed down in our family since Rakka forged it from Fafnir’s blood.” Salem replied quickly, hoping to ease her nieces confusion.  
  
_‘Don’t worry I am here for you my little Alpha.’_  
  
“And each time it was passed on to the next in line it took the form most suited for its new wielder.” The older half Grimm concluded her explanation.  
  
“Okay? But what about this freaky eye glow going on?” Ruby asked, just as the flames began to dim, her newly sparked curiosity about her mother’s blade pushed to the back of her mind for the moment.  
  
After a short nod from Salem, Cinder stepped before the redhead and held up her hand, which was soon filled with a small flame as her eyes were flanked by orange flames.  
  
“Tell me lady Rose has your mother ever told you the story of the Seasons?”  
  
Nodding quickly Ruby spoke up a moment later. “Wait, so that is true?”  
  
_‘Yes Ruby.’_  Summer’s voiced echoed through the half Grimm’s head just as Salem began to answer her question as well. _‘I’ll tell you everything about it later.’_  “Yes, and with this blade you should have inherited the powers of the Winter Maiden.” Salem was interrupted by something the Grimm was not transmitting, before she turned back to her niece and finished. “Sadly I need to see to other things now, but if you do have any questions, Knight Fall can answer them better than I can. It was nice finally talking to you Ruby.”  
  
Not long after the white haired woman had finished, the Grimm’s surface turned pure black.  
  
“Is there anything you want to ask right now Lady Rose?” Cinder asked immediately, the flame in her hand dying own as the ones around her eyes vanished.  
  
“Not right now. But I would like to talk to you once I have cleared my head and grasped everything that just happened.” Ruby replied as she leaned down to pick up all the Grimm like parts for her scythe.  
_  
‘Install them soon my little Alpha, before you lose some of them.’_  Her mother’s voice seemed to say into her head once more, as Ruby was making her way across Campus, unsure where to go.  
  
_‘Am I going crazy?’_ Ruby thought to herself, which was promptly followed by an answer from her mother’s voice again.  
  
_‘No Ruby, I am really here. And I will be for the foreseeable future, I’ll explain it all to you I promise.’_  
  
_‘Okay voice in my head that sounds like Mom.’_  Ruby thought back somewhat sharper than she intended. Even so, she was eager to see how good the new parts would actually work, so after grabbing Crescent Rose from her locker, the half Grimm began to search for an empty workshop she could use.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I hoped you all enjoyed, if not tell me why.


	29. Chapter siebenundzwanzig

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter Siebenundzwanzig

  
  
It took the half Grimm a bit longer than she had hoped to find an unoccupied workshop she could access. Once she finally found her way into one, Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into its scythe form before she engaged the mechanisms safety so the weapon wouldn’t start transforming accidentally and damage itself or the tools she was going to use.  
  
Laying the new Grimm like parts out next to the scythe, the redhead began to carefully remove the pieces forming the weapon’s blade, a task she had performed hundreds of times before inspecting and sharpening them if needed.  
  
 _‘So if you really are my mom, how did you get into my head?’_  The redhead thought at the voice she had started to hear after touching the blade of her mother’s sword.  
  
 _‘When a Maiden dies, their consciousness is passed onto the next Maiden along wit her powers.’_  Was the reply that came from the voice in her head.  
  
Removing the tip of Crescent Rose’s blade, Ruby continued her mental conversation.  
  
 _‘And who do I know that can confirm this?’_  
  
A moment of silence followed while Ruby moved on to the next part she wanted to remove.  
  
 _‘Well I did tell your grandpa Fafnir, but I am pretty sure you don’t remember him, or the way to his home without my help. Other than him, the only other person that knows is Professor Ozpin.’_  
  
 _‘Who is this ‘grandpa Fafnir’_  supposed to be, and even assuming I am not going crazy, how can I be sure you really are Summer Rose?’ The young half Grimm thought back doubtful as she pulled the last piece of sharpened metal from its place.  
  
 _‘Well I could tell you my secret cookie recipe, but then again I already told Yang so -’_ Summer explained to Ruby, but was drowned out by her daughter.  
  
 _‘Wait Yang has known your super secret cookie recipe all this time? No wonder her’s taste SO much better than dad’s.’_  The half Grimm replied incredulously, barely managing to catch the piece of metal she had dropped, cutting into her protective Aura.  
  
 _‘Yes that is most likely the reason’_  The voice in Ruby’s head replied, amused by the girl’s reaction. _‘As to who Fafnir is, let me show you something, just close your eyes for a moment.’_  
  
Deciding to give whoever was in her head the benefit of the doubt for the moment, Ruby put down the piece of Crescent Rose she was still holding and closed her eyes.  
  
 _‘Good now try and relax just the tiniest bit’_  
  
As the half Grimm took a deep breath, she began to ‘see’ things.  
  
-x-  
  
  
She was looking at a rather undefined cave. She was sitting down on something hard as her head turned around on its own, bringing the edge of a table carved from stone into view, which was just as rough to perceive clearly as the walls of the cave.  
  
What was sharp and clear on the other hand was a little toddler with a pair of red furred ears poking out of what little hair she had, and a tail coming out of the back of her onesie. Ruby realised she was looking at herself when the toddler turned around halfway, revealing the white mask with red lines outlining rose petals covering the top half of her face.  
  
 _‘Yes you really were that cute’_  Her mom’s voice commented in her thoughts just as Ruby felt the body she was in chuckle as the little half Grimm before her managed to catch her own tail. A moment later a deep, bellowing laugh filled the air as ‘Summer’ turned to look at an old man, his face as pale and vein crossed as Salem’s, wearing a set of heavy looking plate armor that seemed like it was made from the same bone like material as the little girl’s mask.  
  
 _‘Who is that?’_  Ruby asked the voice in her head curiously.  
  
 _‘That would be your grandpa Fafnir, who had taken care of me for most of my live before I came to Beacon’_  Was the very prompt reply, the thought filled with fondness for the old man.  
  
As they continued to watch the memory for a moment, toddler Ruby crawled over to the old man, seemingly deciding her own tail wasn’t worthwhile prey. Instead she bit down on the long white beard hanging nearly to the ground from Fafnir’s face.  
  
  
-x-  
  
  
As Ruby came to her senses, she noticed a warmth filling her cheeks. Looking at her reflection in one of the pieces of polished metal she had just removed from her weapon. What could be seen of ehr cheeks below her mask was filled with a very visible blush, although the coloration was a much deeper red than what she was used to. Deciding it was most likely part of the changes she had undergone not long ago.  
  
 _‘Okay so you did know me as a toddler, that doesn’t necessarily prove you mom.’_  The redhead thought at the other person inside her head.  
  
 _‘Well as you now at least believe me that I am not just a figment of your imagination, Is there something I could tell you to prove I am really your mom?’_ Summer replied, her mental voice radiating worry.  
  
Ruby thought about it for a bit as she fastened the bolts keeping the first of the Grimm like blade pieces in place.  
  
 _‘If you really are mom, can you tell me the name of the village Summer Rose told me she grew up in?’_ the half Grimm finally asked as she move on to the next piece she would instal in her scythe.  
  
 _‘That is a tricky one, but I never told anyone, because I had some rather bad experiences there I just wanted to leave behind me.’_  The voice in Ruby’s head replied, repeating what Yang and her dad had always told her when she asked about mom’s home village. This caused the young redhead to drop the tool she had in her hand as tears began to flow freely from her eyes, spilling over the edges of her mask to run down her cheeks.  
  
 _‘Oh mom we all missed you so much.’_  The half Grimm thought at Summer.  
  
 _‘I missed you all as well my little Alpha.’_  Her mom replied, sounding as if she was going to shed tears herself any moment if she could.  _‘Now don’t cry Ruby, I will be with you for quite a while now, so wipe of those tears.’_  
  
Wiping her face with the dark red fur on the back of her hands, the redhead bent down to pick up what she had dropped moments earlier.  
  
As she started her work again, a smile graced the half Grimm’s lips at the fact that she could finally tell her mother everything she had wanted to share with ehr for as long as she could remember.  
  
 _‘Okay mom. Say could you help me make cookies like we used to someday?’_  
  
‘Of course Ruby, but are there any questions you have for me about all of this?’  
 _  
‘So many.’_ Ruby thought back as she picked up the next piece of black and white metal she would install in Crescent Rose.  _‘But what I want to know much more is how you fell into a spawning pool, I mean they are pretty rare and easy to avoid.’_  
  
 _‘Who told you I fell in?’_  Summer thought back curiously.  _‘They are really great to relax in, like a nice, although thicker than normal, bath and a massage all at once, that is if you don’t have to evade newly spawning Grimm like a normal human would have too. But how about I just show you that time?’_  
  
  
-x-  
  
  
Ruby found herself in the same cave as the last memory once again. She wasn’t sure how she was sure of this, seeing as the cave itself was only barely clearer than in the last memory.  
  
As she made her way past the table and benches Summer had been sitting on the last time, they entered a vast chamber, big enough to fit at least one of Beacon’s more spacious buildings. With seemingly practiced and quick stepps her mother was making her way along the cavern’s edge until she found a small tunnel leading further down into the mountain.  
  
A few moments later she reached the bottom, where a sizable spawning pool was in the floor, which seemed to have been her mother’s destination all along.  
  
Quickly removing her clothes, most of which showed more than a little wear and tear from the mission she had just finished.  
  
Summer carefully stepped into the pool, making sure she did not step into anything that might lay on the bottom of the pool before she sat down and leaned back. Although the unborn Grimm managed to slither around her sore muscles just like she loved it, the gooey liquid she was in felt a bit to cold for her preferences. So with no one to see her do it, she began to increase the temperature of the pool, her eyes rimmed by silver flames.  
  
Just a moment later there was a glow coming from the center of the pool, where Fafnir had hidden the artifact in his care. The glow soon spread towards and around the wary Huntress.  
  
Immediately she began to feel very strange sensations as the black goo around her was absorbed through ehr skin.. Just as suddenly as it had began it was over again. Spooked by what had just happened, Summer quickly stepped out of the pool. The memory ended with Summer throwing her white cloak over her shoulders before starting to search for her adoptive father.  
  
  
-x-  
  
  
 _‘Wow’_  Ruby thought as her senses returned to normal, unsure what else to say for a moment.  _‘So why did Fafnir have a spawning pool in his cave and how did you actually meet him, now that I think about it?’_  
  
 _‘Well I promised not to tell anyone about that, but I am sure he will tell you himself once the two of you see each other again.’_  Summer replied immediately, but as she continued her thoughts were filled with sadness. _‘And I met him when I was about 6. After my village had been ransacked by bandits, the Grimm came in and finished off anyone still alive except for me. Seeing as the bandits would attack me, I picked up my father’s blade, which reformed to better fit me, just as thorn’s blade did earlier for you, and began to make my way towards the nearby mountain range._ ’ Summer interrupted herself with a short sob at that before she continued to tell her story.  
  
 _’The elder of our village had always warned us not to go there, as they were supposedly teeming with Grimm, but as they had left me alone earlier, I put on my bravest face and decided to take my chances with the Grimm over the bandits.  
Days later I arrived at the entrance to a big cave halfway up a mountain, but before I could move into it I passed out from exhaustion. When I woke up next, Fafnir was with me and from then on he raised me and took care of me until I left to join Beacon years later.’ _  
  
Noticing her mother barely perk up towards the end of her tale, Ruby decided to change the subject of their mental conversation as she continued working on her weapon.  
  
 _‘So what can I do now that I am the Winter Maiden?’_  
  
 _‘Well the ability that should come easiest to you is creating and manipulating Ice and cold. That is more or less how I heated up that pool in the memory, by removing the cold from it.’_  
  
Summer began her explanation of the WInter Maiden’s capabilities, while Ruby finished the work on Crescent Rose, eager to get it finished and try the legendary blade she was installing out, but for now content to just listen to her mother’s voice again.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you all enjoyed, if not feel free to tell me why, if you did a comment is appreciated nonetheless.


	30. Chapter 30

A Grimm Rose   
Chapter eíkosi októ

  
While Ruby would have liked nothing more than to go to the next best training room and check how the new blade affected Crescent Rose, Summer insisted that she should first go somewhere she wouldn’t be disturbed to get some experience with and control over her new powers.  
  
Thus, Ruby had made her way into the same clearing she and her teammates had trained in earlier this day, her pack once more making sure no one would disturb her.  
  
 _‘So what do you want me to try first?’_  The half Grimm asked her mother as she stepped into the center of the tree less area.  
  
 _‘Try freezing over the leaves on the tree before you for now.’_  Summer replied after a moment’s deliberation.  _‘Try to stretch your mind towards the tree before you visualize the leaves slowly being covered by a fine layer of frost.’_  
  
Once her mother had finished her instructions, Ruby began to concentrate and try to follow them as best as she could. A few moments after she had begun to ‘stretch her mind’ the half Grimm felt a few strange sensations brush against her mind. Putting that strange sensation aside for now, the young girl’s eyes were sprouting crimson flames as she began to force her mental image of the leaves freezing over into existence.  
  
It took a minute or two, but soon a layer of ice covered the red leaves, although it was quite a bit thicker then what Ruby had expected.  
  
 _‘That was a great first attempt my little alpha.’_  Summer praised her proudly from within her own mind.  
  
 _‘Thanks mom’_  
  
 _‘Now try and free the leaves from the ice carefully.’_ Her mother told Ruby, giving the wolf eared girl her next task.  
  
Once again she felt things brush against her mind as she tried to reach out towards the frozen over tree with her new powers. Using her powers to reduce the ice around the leaves was a little harder, but after a few minutes of careful concentration the leaves were free of ice once again.  
  
The repeated both of these exercises multiple times until Ruby had improved both her control over the thickness of the ice and the time it took her to cover the leaves until Summer was satisfied.  
  
 _‘Ok now let’s do one last exercise with ice before we move on.’_  Summer said to her daughter. _‘Create a pillar of ice as big and strong as you can make it after I say go until I tell you to stop.’_  
  
 _‘Okay mom.’_  Ruby replied confidently, getting ready to use the Maiden’s powers once more.  
  
 _‘Go!’_ Her mother said immediately.  
  
Not even a second after that command, Ruby began to create a column of ice in front of her, giving it all she could to make it grow as fast as possible. When Summer told her to stop, it had barely risen above her chest, and was nearly as wide as the wolf tailed girls torso.  
  
 _‘Not bad for your first try Ruby.’_  her mother commented proudly as Ruby inspected her own work as the flames around her eyes began to dim for the moment.  
  
 _‘Thanks mom’_ The half Grimm replied as she began to walk around the pillar she made to inspect it completely.  _‘What is next?’_  
  
 _‘Next we’ll try to work with fire.’_ Summer began, her nervous voice echoing through the young girl’s head as she continued. _‘Unlike other elemental effects you can create and control now, fire will continue to burn on its own even after you release your control.  
  
Unlike a rock or earth, which simply falls down, a gust of wind, that would simply stop, or ice, which will simply start to melt after a while, a flame will continue to burn as long as it has fuel to do so, and might even spread further if you are not careful with it.’_  
  
 _‘Okay so what am I supposed to do first? Feel the heat inside a burning branch? Keep a flame from consuming a leaf? Throw a fireball at the sky?’_  Ruby asked, getting more and more excited with each idea she threw at her mother, already trying to think up ways to use it to encourage Grimm to leave human settlements alone without hurting them to badly or burn down bandit camps.  
  
 _‘We will definitely wait with fireballs until you manage to proof you have the necessary control over them, or at least until we are somewhere less flammable than than the middle of the forest.’_  Summer replied, a slight chuckle undermining the stern tone of her voice before she continued. _‘Now your other ideas sound a bit more reasonable, although they seem better suited to teach someone patience than control itself. For now try to create a small flame, like that of a candle or a lighter, over your index finger.’_  Her mother finished the instructions, seeing how far Ruby would get on her own without more detailed instructions.  
  
The young half Grimm for her part was a little confused how she should go about this for the moment. As she let her mind wander for a bit as she tried to think of something she could do with her only exercience so far being with ice. Soon the same brushing sensation came once again, reminding her of how her mother had described the spawning pool she had heated by drawing away the cold.  
  
Stretching out her claw tipped finger, the Beowolf like girl focused on drawing all the cold in front of it away. A moment later the air began to shimmer like a mirage, but there was no ignition yet. She tried a few more times, but after more than a few minutes with little success at creating an actual flame, Ruby decided to ask her mother for advice.  
  
 _‘Mom, I can’t get an actual flame started, no matter what I try.’_  
  
 _‘When I first learned about these powers myself it helped me to think about it as creating something that pushes the cold away for me.’_  Summer offered as advice.  
  
Trying to think about the task like her mother had just suggested, Ruby once again concentrated on imposing the image in her mind on reality, this time not to remove the cold herself, but to coax a little helper into existence that would do it for her.  
  
It took her a few attempts, but soon she succeeded, although calling the embers floating in front of her finger a fire might be pushing it a little bit, that is until she managed to strengthen them into an actual flame.  
  
“I did it!” Ruby exclaimed, her voice filled with cheer and excitement as she looked at the tiny fire crackling above her finger.  
  
 _‘That you did.’_  Summer replied happily before she started to give her daughters instructions once again. _‘Now to improve your control over it, try to write on the pillar before you with it. But be careful, make it to hot and you’ll melt more ice than needed, smudging out the words you try to write, but to little and you won’t be able to melt the ice enough to inscribe something into it.’_  
  
 _‘I’ll try my best’_ Ruby replied before she carefully shifted the flame so it’s tip was where that of a pen would be when she doodled in her notebook, or took notes.  
  
Holding the flame to the pillar’s surface, the half Grimm slowly adjusted the flame’s size and heat until it was just hot enough for her to melt clean lines into the ice. With that done she began to write down whatever crossed her mind at that very moment.  
  
Quite a few times she had to stop her writing and readjust the fire between her clawed fingers after her concentration or control had slacked after a few consecutive sentences. Summer let her continue until she had covered most of the pillar facing Ruby, her control improving greatly the farther down she got.  
  
 _‘Well you definitely could improve quite a bit more.’_ Her mother commented on the girl’s progress. _‘But I think we should stop for today.’_  Summer finished as Ruby’s eyes took in the sun slowly sinking beneath the trees surrounding them.  
  
 _‘Okay, but there is one thing I want to test out more before we head back.’_  Ruby replied as she closed her eyes to concentrate on stretching her mind out once again. Stretching out further than before, the half Grimm soon felt whatever was brushing against her mental ‘senses’ surrounded by it.  
  
Noticing how they were nearly evenly spread out, she barked out. “ **[Where are you]** ” And sure enough the positions of her pack matched up with the strange feelings, that were probably their minds, close enough.  
  
As she tried to think about it some more another presence entered her range, this one much more open to her as she noticed the beings desire to find her. Concentrating on this new presence some more, she realized it was Zwei, who had been sent by Qrow to bring a message to her.  
  
Opening her eyes once again, she lost the feeling of her packs presence around her, but was soon greeted with the small form of her Corgi leaping out of the underbrush, a noted secured to his collar.  
  
“Come here boy, let me see that note from Qrow” The half Grimm said, only to be met with a surprised _‘How do you know who wrote that note?’_  from her mother as she removed the piece of paper from the dog’s collar.  
  
 _‘It might be a Grimm thing?’_  Ruby suggested unsurely as she read over the note from her uncle, that told her that Ozpin wanted her to come to his office as soon as she could.  
  
 _‘Well let’s meet the headmaster.’_  Ruby said as she ordered Zwei to follow at her heel as she began to make her way back towards Beacon.  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter, if you didn't please just tell me why, if you did, leaving a comment is appreciated nonetheless.


	31. Chapter vingt-neuf

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter vingt-neuf  


  
The last remains of daylight were fading fast as Ruby entered the small waiting area before the Elevator leading up into Ozpin’s office. The half Grimm soon noticed her Uncle leaning against the wall next to the elevator.  
  
After she brought her right hand up to make sure her hood was drawn far enough forward to conceal her now black and crimson eyes, the young student called zwei to her side and stepped towards the slightly drunk Huntsman.  
  
“Hi uncle Qrow, I just got your message.” Ruby greeted him, cheerful despite the exhaustion she felt from all that happened today.  
  
“Hey kiddo, say where did you wander of to? Ozpin had me search the whole campus for you.” Qrow replied as he put a hand on the wolf tailed girls hood, barely avoiding putting pressure on her sensitive ears. “Not even your team knew for sure where you went.”  
  
“I was just in Forever Fall Forest, taking care of my pack.” Ruby replied quickly with a nervous chuckle, but immediately after Summer spoke to her.  _‘It’s okay, you can tell him the truth, he knows about the maidens.’_  
  
“Is that all you did out there?” Qrow asked before Ruby could continue, having seen the little half Grimm try to lie too often to count.  
  
Tipping her fingers together nervously she simply replied. “I also trained with mom.”  
  
This simple admision caused Qrows eyes to grow wide with surprise, while he just barely managed not to spit out the sip he was about to take from his flask.  
  
“Then you should definitely get up there and talk to Oz.” The Huntsman said as he pressed the button to call the elevator, causing the doors of the already waiting car to open.  
  
Quickly stepping inside, Ruby was surprised that Qrow had not followed after her and Zwei.  
  
“Aren’t you coming as well?”  
  
“Nope, Ozpin told me to make sure no one interrupted you guys.” Her uncle replied immediately.  
  
Nodding once, Ruby decided to tell their little Corgi to stay with Qrow and after the little dog had stepped outside, the doors closed and the elevator began to take the half Grimm upwards. During her ride she was left wondering what the headmaster wanted to talk about so urgently and in secret, seeing as he had ordered her uncle to stand guard in the lobby to ensure their privacy.  
  
Before her imagination could run of to far though, a short *ding* announced that she had reached her destination before the doors opened before her. Stepping into the office the half Grimm took a look around, hoping to find any indication as to what Ozpin wanted to discuss, but the only thing she noticed was a heavy curtain separating a part of the office.  
  
 _‘I am sure you have nothing to worry about.’_ Summer tried to reassure her daughter, with only moderate success.  
  
“Ah hello miss Rose.” Ozpin greeted her as he got out of the chair he had occupied behind his desk. Stepping around the desk to get closer to the young half Grimm the headmaster asked. “I hope you don’t have anything else planned for tonight, because there is someone who has been waiting for a very long time to see you again.”  
  
“Who is it?” The redhead simply asked, seeing as she had visited her dad over the break.  
  
But as if on cue a giant of a man stepped out from behind the curtain, his black and red eyes trying to meet the same Grimm like orbs hidden by Ruby’s hood.  
  
Taking in the pure white and bone like armor the man was wearing, the young girl spoke unsurely.  
  
“Fafnir?”  
  
 _‘Yes that’s your grandpa Fafnir.’_  Her mother confirmed for the wolf eared girl just as Fafnir let out a deep, bellowing laugh.  
  
“ **[Yes little wolf.]** ” The Elder Grimm growled as he stepped closer to Ruby. “ **[You have grown quite a bit, you look quite like your mother.]** ”  
  
As he continued, he held his hand just below his knees. “ **[Last time you and your mom visited, you were this small.]** ”  
  
“ **[Thanks Mr Fafnir, I think]** ” Ruby barked back, unsure how to react to those words. _‘He is probably just a bit surprised how big you got.’_  her mother suggested from the back of her head.  
  
“ **[Now let me see your face little wolf.]** ” Fafnir asked as he looked at ehr obscured face. “ **[And please just call me Fafnir, or grandpa if you want.]** ”  
  
“[Okay]” Ruby replied meekly as she pulled back the red fabric covering her head, exposing her now Grimm like Eyes and much paler skin.  
  
“ **[I never expected you to mature this soon.]** ” Fafnir said, surprise evident in his gravelly voice as he held a hand before Ozpin, who took the cue and stayed back for the moment. “ **[This means I have so much to teach you how to do now little wolf.]** ”  
  
“ **[What do you mean ‘matured’? And what do you want to teach me?]** ” Ruby barked confused, with even Summer unable to explain what her adoptive father had meant.  
  
“ **[It means you have already absorbed enough negative emotions to awaken all the abilities my blood has given you. As to what I can teach you.]** ”  
  
As he said this, Fafnir held up one of his hands and a moment later the white gauntlet covering it began to recede into his black flesh. The hand itself grew in size slowly as the fingers at it ends changed, thumb and index finger turned into reptilian claws, while the remaining three began to thin out and elongate. As a thin membrane began to grow between them, Ruby felt reminded of a bat’s wings.  
  
“ **[For one you should be able to learn how to adapt your body to your environment at will.]** ” Fafnir continued, a smile spreading over his face as the half Grimm starred in fascination at the hand that slowly turned back to how it was before.  
  
Remembering the video message from Salem she had seen just a few days prior, Ruby barked excitedly.  
  
“ **[You mean I could see my face for once?]** ”  
  
But before Fafnir could reply to his little wolf, Ozpin stepped past Fafnir’s outstretched hand and spoke up.  
  
“I am sorry to interrupt whatever the two of you are talking about, but I would like to know what caused this latest change to miss Rose’s physiology, seeing as just yesterday her eyes were still looking like those of a Human.”  
  
As Ruby began to fidget nervously while deciding what to tell them, her mother spoke up to try and help her. ‘It’s okay, you can tell both of them about our family’s blade.’  
  
Releasing a deep sigh in relief, which caused ozpin's eyebrow to slightly rise, Ruby began to explain.  
  
“Well you see Professor. Ozpin, I got a package today. When I opened it, my mom’s sword was inside.” As she continued, the half Grimm’s tail flicked from side to side nervously as she rubbed her arm. “But when I tried to pick it up, the blade fell to pieces and I started to hear mom talk to me in my he-”  
  
“That’s great news” Fafnir exclaimed excitedly, speaking normally for Ozpin’s benefit.  
  
“We don’t have to go looking for the Grimmslayer ourselves. But would you mind helping my little Rose talk to me again?” The elder Grimm finished, his eyes appearing slightly wet.  
  
 _‘Please Ruby?’_  Summer asked, sounding just as close to tear of joy at the reunion as Fafnir.  
  
“Sure” Ruby said with a short nod, her tails movements calming down somewhat.  
  
“I am so sorry I wasn’t there to save you my little flower.” Fafnir said, tears barely not spilling out of his eyes.  
  
 _‘It’s okay dad’_  Summer said, waiting for her daughter to relay her words to the ancient being before them.  
  
“No it’s not, I should at least have visited your home when no one came to visit me for a few years.” The elder Grimm replied, the tears now flowing freely down his cheeks as he embraced the young girl before him, forgetting for a moment that she was not her mother.  
  
“It’s okay” Ruby said as she patted Fafnir’s back, trying to comfort the ancient Grimm.  
  
“I lost her as well, if you want I can show you to the memorial we put up for her on Patch.” The half Grimm said as the tears flowing from Fafnir’s eyes began to ebb.  
  
“And if you ever want to talk to her you just need to ask.”  
  
The two of them stood like that in silence for a while as Fafnir simply nodded to both of Ruby’s suggestions. A moment later Ozpin stepped forward and let out a simple cough to get their attention.  
  
“As touching as this reunion is, now that you are the newest Winter Maiden there are a few things you need to be made aware of.” Ozpin said as he lead the other two towards a pair of chairs before his desk. Stepping towards his own chair behind the table, Ozpin began to explain.  
  
“For one, but I assume Summer told you this one already, the Identity of the Maidens, as well as their existence is a well kept secret, to which only a handful of Huntsmen are privy. Another important thing to note is that each Maiden is the key to retrieving a powerful artifact hidden beneath the Huntsman Academies, which in your case would be the hidden beneath Atlas.”  
  
After he took a sip from the, by now cold, coffee before him, Ozpin began to explain the dangers of being a Maiden, most obvious of all people coming after her on the off chance that her powers would pass on to them when they killed the young half Grimm.  
  
Once everything important was covered and Ruby’s questions answered, she made her way out of the office. When the elevator reached the ground floor, Ruby stepped past a barely awake Qrow and Zwei, who followed her on the way back to her dorm room.  
  
  



	32. Chapter Trinta

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter trinta  


When Qrow had come to them in his search for Ruby, Yang had worried immensely about her younger sister when the Huntsman informed them he been unable to find her anywhere on Campus.

Blake and Weiss had barely managed to calm the blonde down enough that she was able to settle down to sleep by promising that the cat Faunus would stay up until the young redhead returned from Ozpin’s office. The raven haired girl wasn’t sure how long she had been waiting by now seeing as she had locked herself out for their dorm room five cups of coffee ago when she had left her scroll next to the book she had been reading to stay awake.

Luckily her heightened caffeine intake had sufficed to keep her awake, but like the four times before now, Blake found herself debating the pros and cons of leaving the door to get a new cup of the black liquid keeping her functioning at the moment and risk missing Ruby’s return.

Just as she had made up her mind and turned to leave for the small kitchen shared by their floor, the cat eared girl saw the half Grimm in question walking towards her in the hallway, Zwei at her heel as the wolf tailed girls Grimm like eyes widened in surprise, most likely surprised that Blake was standing outside their dorm room.

‘Wait since when are Ruby’s eyes black and red?’ Blake asked herself confusedly, her confusion only growing once she caught a glimpse of Ruby’s paler than normal skin.

Stepping towards the redhead she immediately spoke up both with that confusion and concern.

“Ruby are you alright?”

“Yes, everything is alright.” The half Grimm replied, sounding just as cheerful, although a little less energetic, than always.

“So what did Ozpin want with you?” The dark haired Faunus asked carefully as she stepped aside so Ruby could open the door for them, staying away from the little corgi on the girls other side.

“He-” Ruby began enthusiastically, before she suddenly stopped herself as her expression grew thoughtful before she continued as the door opened before them.

“He had met some of my mom’s relatives and wanted to introduce us, as they had only learned about her death from him.”

“Well.” Blake began before a tired yawn interrupted her as the two stepped into the room. “That sounds nice enough, but where were you? Yang was going to worry herself sick until I promised her to wait for you.”

Again Ruby took an uncharacteristically long moment to answer.

“I was taking care of my pack, seeing as we had used them as simple lookouts for our training earlier.” The half Grimm finally replied, her tail hitting the doorframe once as she stepped into the room after Blake.

“So then what happened to your eyes?” Blake asked pointedly once they had closed the door behind them.

This time the time Ruby spent thinking over her answer was even longer, her ears and tails twitching nervously. She even seemed to mumble to herself once or twice before she finally answered.

“I’m not sure how much I can tell you, but I will tell all of you as much as I can in the morning.”

Seeing as Ruby had yet to run away from them when she promised an explanation, Blake decided to trust their leader to tell them everything important in the morning and headed to sleep herself after wishing her a good night.

 

~~~~~~

 

After Blake had fallen asleep Ruby lay in her own bed, trying her best to be quiet so the rest of the team could get the sleep they needed.

_‘No I am not keeping Yang in the dark about you’_ Ruby shouted at her mother mentally as they discussed what Ruby could and would tell the her teammates in the morning.

_‘But what about the rest of your team? Do you really trust them enough to tell them about the Maidens?’_ Summer replied, relenting on the point that Ruby would tell her sister no matter what the last maiden would tell her daughter.

_‘Yes’_ Ruby replied without hesitation. _‘But I was thinking to make it out as something specific to our family and me being part Grimm unless they see what I can do as a Maiden now.’_

The redhead finished her reply, obvious in her desire not to antagonize Ozpin by going against his wishes.

_‘That could work, and it wouldn’t technically be a lie.’_ Her mother agreed before she continued excitedly after she had an idea.  _‘Did Ozpin give you that story of Rakka I told him a few times? Maybe explain it from that.’_

Bringing her hand up to scratch her ears, Ruby thought over what her mother had said for a short moment before she spoke again.  _‘Like Fafnir’s curse affected the blade that is now in Crescent Rose as well, so it caused both my new look and got you stuck in my head?’_

_‘Yes that would work nicely’_  Summer said, happy with the excuse her daughter had managed to think up.

_‘So now that we have some time and nothing to do, how has your time at Beacon be so far?’_

_‘It’s been really amazing so far.’_ Ruby said cheerfully before she began to summarize her first semester.

_‘During Initiation I saved Weiss, that’s my partner in case you forgot, by taking over the local Beowulf pack when I knocked out their Alpha. But when I went to check on them that night, Ozpin found out about what I am, he told me the next day._

_Then there was the time I got to angry in a fight and wounded a racist idiot, which lead to some extra research I had to o for Professor Goodwitch._

_Oh and after we found out Blake was with the White Fang we helped the police to protect a large Dust shipment and helped catch Roman Torchwick in the process.’_

_‘All that really does sound exciting’_ Summer replied as she thought back to all the things team STRQ did during their time at Beacon.

_‘And I didn’t even begin to tell you about our mission to Mountain Glenn and how Glynda and my team found out about what I am.’_  The wolf eared girl said happily as she continued to tell her mother all the memorable things that happened to herself so far.

 

~~~~~~

 

The next morning, team RWBY got up bright and early, even though they would be fighting in the afternoon bracket so they could see who they would be up against in the singles round, and more importantly, because Ruby owed them some answers.

Thus once all of them had finished their morning routine they sat down on their beds and waited for Ruby to speak up, her face hidden from their direct view by her raised hood.

“So why did the headmaster call you into his office yesterday?” Weiss asked, glaring at her partners shaded eyes.

“Yang, do you remember that story Professor Ozpin sent me, that one about the elder Grimm?” Ruby asked carefully, laying Crescent Rose, for now folded up, on the ground between the students.

“The one with the sword like mom’s?” Yang asked, slightly confused.

“I found out yesterday that at least some of it is true” Ruby said as she let Crescent Rose unfold carefully until everyone could clearly see the Grimm like blade fitted to the Scythe. “There really is a blade that is passed down by Rakka’s descendants, until I touched it yesterday, the pieces making up this new blade were part of my mom’s sword.” She continued over the surprised looks her teammates gave her.

“Okay, but how did your eyes change?” Blake asked after she regained her bearings.

“Well the blade wasn’t the only thing that changed when I touched it.” With those words the half Grimm pulled back her hood to reveal her now Grimm like eyes and bone white skin.

“Do you have any clue why this happened?” Weiss asked Ruby as the redhead put her weapon away again.

“Not really.” The half Grimm replied before she turned to her sister. “ Also Yang there is something I need to tell you in private.”

Taking the hint, Weiss and Blake made their way out of the room. “We’ll meet you at breakfast then.” Blake said as she closed the door behind herself.

“What is it Ruby?” Yang asked concerned as she moved closer to her sister.

“I am so proud of you my bright little dragon.” Ruby said, seemingly confused and unsure about what she just said.

“What did you just call me?” Yang asked surprised to hear the nickname Summer had called her all those years ago.

“I don’t know, mom told me to say it.” Ruby said rubbing her arm nervously. “She’s stuck inside my head since I touched the blade.” She quickly replied, her tail swishing from one side to the other.

“Really?” Yang asked, not sure if her Sister was telling the truth or just pulling a fast one on her.

“Yes, really, I can explain it better if you promise not to tell anyone else.” Ruby replied, her expression dead serious.

“If it gets me an explanation, sure I’ll not tell anyone about this.” Yang said without a second thought. “Now spill it.”

“Did mom ever tell you the story of the seasons?”

“The fairy tale with the old geezer and the four girls?” Yang replied confused, unsure what an old story could have to do with their current situation.

“Well it’s not just a tale.” Ruby said as her eyes were wreathed in crimson flames as a small globe of ice formed over the palm of her hand.

“Mom was the last Winter Maiden before me, and is in my head to help me with these new found powers.” Ruby finished as she let the globe evaporate.

“So Mom is really in there?” Yang asked, pointing at her sister’s head.

“Yeah, anything you want to talk about with her?” Ruby offered, but Yang immediately shook her head.

“Yes but Weiss and Blake are waiting for us, let’s do this after I get into the singles round.” The blonde said as she jumped up and began to move towards the door. “Now come let’s get something to eat before the first matches start.”

Following after Yang, the half Grimm wondered what was going through her sister’s mind at the moment.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thanks for reading, any and all feedback is appreciated.  
>  


	33. Chapter sān shí yī

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter sān shí yī  


“And for the final match before we take a break for Lunch we have Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil form Atlas against Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush from Beacon.” Peter Port’s voice echoed through the stands of Amity Colosseum as the announcer shouted excitedly into the microphone that was way too close to his mouth with how the grey haired Professor leaned forward in his chair.

“A very interesting match up indeed. On the one side we have a team using the high tech and immaculate strategic thinking the Kingdom of Atlas is known for. Against them we have a pair of young men using simple weapons and their personal skills to fight their battles.

I for one am looking forward to see how this match will play out.” His co commentator, Doctor Oobleck elaborated, no less excited but thankfully quieter and just a tad slower than during his lectures.

Team RWBY were sitting in the audience, excited to watch one more match together before two of them would have to get ready for their own match after they ate something. Ruby was sitting on the edge of her seat, excited at the prospect of finally getting to see Penny fight after she had missed the robot’s showing in the team round. Seeing Cardin get his racist ass handed to himself was just the cherry on top for the half Grimm.

“Go Penny” The redhead shouted excitedly before continuing to munch on the last remaining bits of her Popcorn as the four combatants entered the arena.

‘I never expected I would be cheering against a team from Beacon.’ Summer commented from the back of her daughter’s head.

“Yeah beat that idiot’s face to a pulp” Yang joined in once she had finished taking a drink from her soda.

“Go Atlas” Weiss shouted, a bit quieter than her two teammates, not above cheering for her home when the opportunity presented itself.

Blake for her part decided to stay silent for this match, unwilling to cheer for Cardin, who had casually bullied other students, especially Faunus, or Atlas with all the bad history the Kingdoms companies had with treating Faunus like people.

Down in the Arena, Penny and Ciel had taken their positions, standing ready and alert, while Cardin and Russel were standing around relaxed and seemingly confident as around them the terrain randomization began.

A few moments later it settled on the terrain they would fight in. A grassland filled with decently sized boulders rose behind the Beacon students, while an artificial Forest appeared behind the girls from Atlas. Once both terrain fields were in place the match began, and before the male competitors got ready going from their relaxed poses, a set of black and green blades were flying towards them under the direction of Penny.

Parrying the first few with his mace, Cardin soon followed after Russel who had sought shelter behind one of the boulders closest to them. For a few seconds they were met with reassuring silence, before a series of grating sounds echoed through the arena as Penny buried her swords half way in the boulder the Beacon students were using as cover. A moment later the rock was lifted upwards and when the surprised boys turned to look at their opponents, Ciel had her gun trained on them.

Before they move anywhere, the boulder came falling back down, knocking out a majority of their Aura out and trapping them beneath itself. While they struggled to get out beneath the rock, Ciel fired shot after shot at them until their Aura finally came down enough for the match to be called.

“And the Victory goes to Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil from Atlas.” Port’s voice boomed from the speakers as Ruby stood up and turned towards her team.

“I’ll see you on the fairgrounds for lunch” The half Grimm shouted to be heard over the post match analysis before rushing of, leaving a trail of rose petals when she used her Semblance to be fast enough to intercept Penny before she left the floating building and invite her to join them for Lunch.

After navigating through the maze like hallways of Amity Colosseum, Ruby saw the robot she had been looking for heading towards the airships shuttling people around the different locations of the Vytal Festival.

“That was awesome how you flung around that boulder Penny.” Ruby shouted as she caught up to Penny and Ciel.

“Hello Friend Ruby, this is Ciel, my teammate, but you probably already knew that.” Penny replied as she stopped and turned to meet the half Grimm.

“Hi.” Ruby said, waving her claw tipped hand towards the other girl, a wide smile on her face.

“He-Hello” Ciel replied, obviously intimidated by Ruby’s Grimm like appearance.

“So Penny would you mind joining me and my team for Lunch?” Ruby asked as she pulled her cloak around her to be less intimidating for the frightened girl next to Penny.

“We sadly do have plans scheduled” Ciel replied, her fear slightly diminishing once Ruby’s Beowolf like arms were hidden from sight.

“I am sure I can make time for you and your team Friend Ruby.” Penny quickly countered her friends excuse.

“Great the rest should meet us on the fairgrounds.” Ruby said as the trio began to move to the closest airship together.

 

~~~~~~

 

Blake was following after Weiss and Yang, slightly worried by Ruby's quick departure. It also caused her to soon lose herself in thoughts about the new, somewhat strange behavior the redhead had been displaying since the last evening.

Most prominently was the fact she sometimes waited before or after replying to others as if she listened to an unheard comment, but also suddenly giggling or pouting with no apparent reason.

“Hello, Remnant to Blake.” Yang’s voice finally managed to get through to the Faunus, ripping the raven haired girl from her thoughts.

Looking up at her teammates Blake replied. “Sorry what were we talking about?”

“Yang and I were discussing what we would prefer for Lunch, you barely managed to avoid running into something.” Weiss said, a concerned look on her face. “What were you thinking about so hard?”

“It’s just with how we heard nothing from the White Fang since our mission to Mountain Glenn. Junior was just some Human hired to oversee the operation there, so the ones that actually planned that are still at large.” The raven haired girl lied quickly, not wanting to draw attention to the concerns she had about their leader, in case it was just something stupid Ruby was going through because she was part Grimm.

“Sure that’s a bit worrisome.” The blonde agreed as she continued leading the group to the closest airship field. “But we can’t really do anything about that. So let’s focus on lunch for now.” She finished, looking expectantly at Blake.

“I quite liked those fried noodles with tuna I had after our match in the team round.” The cat Faunus replied, licking her lips as she remembered the taste of the expertly prepared dish.

“That doesn’t really help, Yang wants to eat Burgers, while I would prefer some pasta before our match this afternoon.” Weiss complained as they boarded the Bullhead heading to the fairgrounds next.

“Well let’s see if can find our fearless leader and then let her decide between our suggestions.” Blake suggested as she followed the heiress.

“Yeah that’s probably the best way to decide this.” Yang agreed as the airship took of and ferried them to the edge of the area Beacon had set aside for all the food stalls and a few vendors.

As they stepped out of the transport, they saw Ruby waiting on the edge of the landing pad.

“Hi, what are we going to eat?” The red head greeted them, waving her claw tipped hand excitedly as her tail barely missed Penny, who was standing right next to the half Grimm.

“Salutations.” The Atlesian student greeted the rest of team RWBY as they walked towards them.

“Hi Penny.” Yang replied before she turned towards her sister. “Well that is kinda up in the air right now, Weiss wants to get pasta, Blake would prefer some fried noodles and I myself would really like a nice burger or two.”

“Well all of that sounds great, but if I had to choose I would go with pasta.” The half Grimm replied immediately, her tail beginning to flick from side to side a bit faster than before. She turned around and was about to lead the group through all the different stalls, when she suddenly stopped and turned towards her partner. “Where can we eat pasta here?”

“This way you dolt.” Weiss replied as she began to lead the group towards the stall she had had in mind, pushing through the horde of hungry spectators that were also using the break between matches to get some real food.

After just over ten minutes the group of five had reached their destination and sat down on the last free seats before the counter. Once they had all finished ordering their food, well except for penny who claimed she wasn’t that hungry, Weiss turned to the student from Atlas.

“I was very impressed with how you and your teammate handled those idiots in the last fight. But why aren’t you with your team celebrating that one of you is moving on to the finals?”

“Ruby asked if I wanted to join you for lunch, and I can’t really say no to such a request from royalty.” Penny stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Wait that’s not how I meant this.” Ruby said, slightly shocked and her tail hanging limp. “If you want to celebrate with your team you can just go and catch up tot hem.”

“Oh, then I will take my leave.” Penny said, bowing slightly towards Ruby after she got out of her seat, just as the meals for the rest of them arrived.

“Go have fun with your team.” The redhead said before she began to eat her meal.

“So anything you two need to do before your big match?” Blake inquired between bites.

“Not really.” Yang replied after swallowing. “As long as you guys cheer us on everything should be fine” The blonde finished confidently, before winking at her sister.

“I would have liked to ask Penny about the other teams from Atlas now that you mention it. But then again this is Atlas we are talking about so there shouldn’t be any big surprises waiting for us.” Weiss answered after a short sip from the water she had ordered. “As long as we stick to our plan we shouldn’t have much of a problem with any opponent.”

With their confidence voiced, the girls quickly finished their meal before they had to make their way back to the Colosseum, where their paths would split. Ruby and Blake headed back to their seats, while Weiss and Yang entered the waiting area for the teams of Beacon fighting in the next bracket of matches.

 

~~~~~~~~~


	34. Chapter trettien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, here's the newest chapter for all of you.

A Grimm Rose  
Chapter trettien  


  
Yang was getting impatient as she and Weiss were waiting to be called into the arena for their match. The heiress was sitting before a simple table and checking Myrtenaster’s mechanisms and Dust reserves one last time to make sure her weapon was in prime condition for their upcoming fight. The blonde brawler on the other hand was pacing across the waiting area nervously, engaging and disengaging Ember Cecilia.  
  
“Calm down Yang, we’re going to do just fine” Weiss tried to calm down her teammate as she stood up and sheathed her rapier.  
  
“I’ll try.” Yang replied as she forced herself to stop and leaned against the wall instead, still worrying how the rest of her team, and her mom, would react if she lost them the match by making some stupid mistake.  
  
They only had to wait a few more minutes before the two of them were called on to move into the arena. When they stepped out of the access tunnels, they could hear professor Port announce them and their opponents,Team FNKI from Atlas, sounding just as enthusiastic as he had for every other match so far.  
  
“Do we have a special plan for them?” Yang asked Weiss, her nervousness sneaking into her voice, as she got ready for the fight.  
  
“I don’t think we managed to get some specifics about their fighting styles, but if I remember correctly, they did a small concert on the fairgrounds a few days ago. Let’s just stick to our standard tactic and we should be able to deal with whatever they throw at us.” The white haired girl replied immediately as she readied Myrtenaster.  
  
When the two pairs of students reached the center of the arena, they took in each others appearances as they got ready for the match and the terrain selection.  
  
The Boy of team FNKI was wearing a simple shirt underneath a black and grey west. On the top of his head sat a simple fedora while he held a trumpet in his hand, carrying no easily discernible weapon.  
  
His partner was an orange haired Faunus girl, although neither Weiss or Yang were sure what animal the tail hanging down below her miniskirt belonged to. Unlike the boy, Flynt Coal according to the Professors introductions for the audience, Neon was holding an obvious weapon in the form of a set of nunchaku styled like oversized glow sticks. Even so the fact she was wearing a set of roller skates into combat was just as strange as her partner's lack of apparent weapon.  
  
“Hey aren’t you Weiss Schnee?” The Atlesian boy asked as he looked at the Heiress. “You must be real good with Dust.”  
  
“Of course I am.” Weiss replied, unsure what he was trying to get at.  
  
“My dad was real good with Dust as well. That is until your father ran him out of business.”  
  
“What’s she supposed to do about that?” Yang shouted at their opponents, angry that the failings of Weiss’ father was projected onto her teammate.  
  
“What’s she supposed to do about that.” The Faunus repeated in a mocking voice as she pointed at Yang. “That’s what you sounded like.”  
  
Yang was about to shout an angry reply at Neon, but she stopped herself, with both RUby and Summer watching, she wanted to keep a cool head, so she took a deep breath to calm down and said nothing.  
  
Moments later the terrain for their match began to rise from the catacombs of Amity Colosseum, behind Yang and Weiss an area of reddish rock appeared, with a number of artificial geysers going of at random intervals once it was in place. The other half of the arena was filled with the ruined remains of concrete buildings that would have fitted right into Mountain Glenn.  
  
Seconds later the match was counted off and the fight began. Just as they had practiced, Yang stepped in front of Weiss, keeping an eye on their opponents to make sure they would not rush the heiress as she readied herself to throw Dust fueled attacks at team FNKI.  
  
Before the first of those actually reached their opponents, Flynt had brought his instrument up to his lips and, more than likely with the help of some Dust hidden inside the trumpet, created a wave of pressurized air that extinguished the flames coming his way and slowed the icicles Weiss had sent his way with the help of a glyph enough that they only made the slightest dent in his Aura.  
  
While Yang did her best to shield her teammate from the boys attack, charging her Semblances as her Aura diminished slightly, Neon managed to slip out of Yangs line of sight as she weaved through the ruined buildings on her skates. She managed to circle around Weiss and Yang, and despite having to slow down as she crossed the geyser field the Faunus managed to strike Weiss from behind with her nunchaku, but before she could get away, her feet were frozen in place by a black glyph.  
  
“Yang behind you.” Weiss shouted to get the blonde’s attention. Taking a look at the heiress and the restrained Neon, Yang jumped over her teammate with a little assistance of her weapons recoil. As her jump reached its apex, Yang adjusted her trajectory with a second set of shots, before she began to fall. A moment later, her gauntleted fist impacted the Faunus’ shoulder, flinging her away as Weiss let her glyph dissolve to focus on stopping Flynt’s attacks.  
  
With a fourth of her Aura gone after a single blow, Neon quickly retreated to the city ruins again, weaving between the walls to evade the attacks Weiss sends her way, as Flynt continues to try and batter down Yang, who went back to shielding the Heiress from their opponents ranged attacks to continue and charge her Semblance and make allow Weiss to focus on the offensive.  
  
After a few moments of this relative standstill, the Atlesian boy began to smirk, before he activated his semblance, which allowed him to split into four before each of them released a powerful blast of air that pushed both Yang and Weiss into the field of geysers, one of which went of directly beneath them before they could get out of the way.  
  
As they got up again somewhat shakely, both of them had lost nearly two thirds of their Aura to the steaming hot water, Yang grinned as she flicked her now glowing locks out of her face before she began to charge at Flynt. When the boy started to try and suppress her with blasts of air, the blonde was slowed down, but after using half of her remaining shotgun shells to increase her forward momentum, Yang reached her target and with a quick uppercut knocked his trumpet away before a Semblance fueled punche to the face drained Flynt’s Aura enough that a buzzer proclaimed his elimination.  
  
Neon had been on her way to intercept Yang before she could manage to reach her and Flynt, but even so she was determined to take out the other girl to get FNKI and RWBY back to equal footing.  
  
Sadly with her focus on Yang, she failed to notice Weiss covering most of the Arena ground in an uneven sheet of ice, causing Neon to stumble on her skates and crash into Yang, instead of hitting her with a skate by attack. The moment the two of them came to a stop, Yang began to wrestle with the Faunus, trying to pin her to the ground with only marginal success, but when she saw Weiss closing in on them, she grabbed onto Neon’s legs and held her in place facing Weiss.  
  
As the Faunus looked up, the last thing she saw before she was eliminated from the match as well was Weiss sending a stream of fire directly at her.  
  
  
~~~~~~  
  
  
Hours later, RWBY were slowly stumbling into their own dorm room, after they had spent all afternoon partying with FNKI, who had been surprisingly friendly despite the fact they lost their match. The celebration had been quite enjoyable, not least of all because of the great music performance of FNKI, which had been joined by Weiss for some vocals for a few songs.  
  
But now with night falling there was something the girls had not been able to discuss in public. “So who are we sending on to the singles round?” Blake asked as she sat down on her bed and took of her bow freeing her cat ears from their confinement.  
  
“I would suggest Yang, seeing as her Semblance would be helpful if she needs a comeback after getting hit by something unexpected.” Weiss suggested, unused to admitting someone else might be better suited to a task than herself as she leaned back on her bed.  
  
“Well if you think so, I won’t complain.” Yang replied cheerfully as she plopped down on a chair.  
  
“Then I think it is decided.” Ruby concluded before pointing a claw tipped finger at her sister. “Yang will represent us in the final round of the Vytal tournament and we will do our best to help her prepare for it and cheer her on.”  
  
After finishing her announcement, Ruby got up and stepped to the room’s window and opened it. “Now if you excuse me, there are a few people I still need to tell bout this.”  
  
Before the others could object, Ruby had jumped out the window and began to rush towards the Forever Fall Forest with the help of ehr Semblance, leaving a trail of slowly dissolving petals.  
  
A short while later the wolf eared girl had reached her favourite clearing and let out an echoing howl. “ **[Gather]** ”  
  
When the Members of her pack finished trickling into the clearing, Ruby quickly told them about her team's success, before she inquired how the pack had been doing over the past days, and learned that quite a few of the less intelligent members of her pack got themselves killed by a group of students traversing the Forest. After a few minutes of mourning, the young alpha began to lead her pack through some mock fighting before settling down and just petting a few of them.  
  
Quite a while later, with the shattered moon shedding a pale light on the clearing, a figure wearing a black cloak to concealing them stepped into the clearing behind Ruby.  
  
“ **[It’s time you had your first lesson.]** ”  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~


	35. Chapter tridtsat'-tri

A Grimm Rose

Chapter tridtsat'-tri

 

Hearing a voice behind her, Ruby turned around, just to come face to face with Fafnir. While all the Beowulfs around them began to lay down in submission, the half Grimm addressed her elder. 

“ **[Hello Fafnir, what do you want to teach me?]** ”

Before he answered her question, Fafnir sat down on a nearby tree stump,and prompted all the Grimm to rise from their prone positions and sit instead. 

“ **[I hope to teach you how to reach out to your siblings with your mind.]** ”   
“ **[Why can’t we start with how I can make myself look more normal again?]** ” Ruby asked, slightly confused, as she sat down on the ground before him. Even with her question, her excitement was easy to see with her tail swishing from side to side on the ground.

The Ancient Grimm gave her a thin lipped smile before he responded.

“ **[Because it is easier to control Grimm that are not yourself. Now, close your eyes and try to stretch out your senses.]** ”    
_ ‘That sounds just like what you had me do mom.’  _ Ruby commented to Summer as she nodded to the Elder Grimm while slowly closing her eyes. 

As she stretched out her senses like she had done when training with her mother, just like before, she could feel something brush against her senses.

“ **[I feel something where each member of my pack is sitting.]”** Unseen by the young girl, her comment caused Fafnir’s eyes to widen in surprise.

“ **[That was faster than I expected, well done child. Now try to concentrate on a single one of them and try to touch its mind.]** ”

With another short nod, Ruby began to focus on the instance of this strange feeling that was closest to herself. A moment later she felt waves of excruciating pain coming from it, just as a pained howl sounded right behind her. Surprised Ruby’s eyes opened wide as she turned around to look at the origin of the howl. Behind her, one of her Beowulfs was clutching its head as it howled and thrashed in pain. As she watched, the pack’s alpha noticed its eyes and hair not moving despite how much it was shaking around.   
“ **[What is going on?!]** ” Ruby shouted panicked.   
_ ‘I fear you used the powers of the Winter Maiden on it.’  _ Summer said as she tried to soothe her daughters worries.   
“ **[It seems as if it’s head has been frozen stiff]** ” Fafnir said as he stepped closer to the Grimm which had started to quiet down and just laid there, unmoving as he touched it’s frozen fur.   
_ ‘You you mean  _ **_I_ ** _ did this?’  _ Ruby asked Summer confused and angry.   
_ ‘Yes, I fear you accidentally set the powers you inherited from me against the poor thing.’  _ Summer commented, trying her best to sound sad over the death of a Grimm.

_ ‘But but that’s not what I wanted.’  _ Ruby said, her mental voice filled with sadness and a hint of self loathing.

_ ‘I know Ruby, I know.’  _ Summer replied, trying her best to comfort her daughter without the ability to hug her.

“ **[Well this is very unexpected.]** ” Fafnir commented as he left the now dissolving Beowulf, unaware of Ruby and Summer’s mental conversation.   
“ **[I-I killed him]** ” Ruby told Fafnir as tears welled up in her eyes.   
“ **[No, it is as much my fault as it is yours.]** ” Fafnir said as he placed a hand on the redhead’s shoulder “ **[I should have talked more with Ozpin about what being Summer’s daughter might have meant for you in regards to all of this]** ”    
After this comment, Fafnir helped Ruby to stand up as he began to lead the way back towards Beacon.   
After she had said her goodbyes on the ground underneath team RWBY’s dorm window, Ruby quickly scaled a nearby tree to jump into the dorm from.   
“Good night Ruby.” Yang greeted her sounding somewhat annoyed, or maybe even angry, as the redhead landed in the middle of the room.

“You still awake sis?” the half Grimm asked surprised as she stood up and closed the window.

“Yes, because unlike you I haven’t forgotten that you promised I could talk to Mom today.” The blonde, barely keeping herself from raising her voice as to not wake the rest of their team. As she continued, her crimson eyes stared into Ruby’s. “But your little group of monsters seems to be more important than a promise to your own sister.” 

By now she was poking Ruby in the chest, while the half Grimm was trying her best to stay calm so as to not break down and cry over all that happened so far this night.   
“I-I’m sorry Yang.” The redhead simply stated as she rubbed the back of her neck, ears hanging low and tail snuck between her legs. “You want to ask mom anything right now?”   
“More than a few things.” Yang replied. “But top on that list is what happened on mom’s last mission.”   
A moment of silence followed, before Ruby relaid their Summer’s reply. “Mom said she would tell you if you really want, but she says you might not like all of it.”

“I don’t care if I like what I’ll hear or not, I want to know what killed a Huntress that was ignored by Grimm.” The blonde replied immediately.

“Okay, but mom suggests we sit down, as this might take a while.” Ruby said as she pulled two chairs from their desks before sitting down on one of them.

 

-x-

 

Seeing one last Goliath before her, Summer jumped up into the branches of a nearby tree to get a better look at the Grimm’s back. A moment later, the huntress vanished in a cloud of white rose petals, just to reaper on the elephant like monsters back in a similar cloud.

Summer had gotten used to Grimm not reacting to her presence years ago and without a second thought she plunged her weapon deep into the Goliath’s neck before it seemed like it even noticed her presence.    
Once her blade’s crossguard was touching the beast’s skin, Summer pulled the trigger to send a bullet into the Grimm. But as this would do little to kill it, she also drew n the powers of the winter maiden to sever its neck with a thin blade of ice as there was no one around to witness it anyways.   
As the now dissolving beast’s body began to fall to the side, Summer pulled out her sword before leaping to safety on the ground. Just as she was about to take her first step, a trio of bullet’s impacted her Aura before she could try to dodge them. The redheaded Woman immediately took cover behind the dissolving Grimm before the unseen attacker could fire another burst of bullets.

Taking a peek through the cloud of dissolving Grimm, Summer could make out a band of bandits approaching her position. Transforming her blade into an approximation of an actual rifle, the Winter Maiden carefully began to return fire against the approaching outlaws. She managed to break through the Aura of one bandit before they took cover as well.   
Realizing her cover would not last as long as the tree’s the bandits had hid behind, Summer looked around until she found a small grove of trees nearby, which she appeared in just a second later as Rose petals fell to the ground. Thanks to her change in location, she managed to take down another bandit.   
Hearing a twig snap behind her, the Huntress turns around, careful to remain hidden from the known enemies, just to see a dozen more humans and Faunus wearing the same gear as the bandits approaching her location. Deciding not to take her chances against those Numbers, Summer used her Semblance once again to vanish as far as she could see into the forest.

As she tried to pull out her scroll to call Qrow for backup, a Aura and Dust enhanced blade struck her across the back, draining more of her Aura than the bullets that hit her before.

Spinning around, Summer barely brought her blade up in time to block another strike of the flame wreathed blade. Looking up at her assailant, she immediately recognized the woman behind the Grimm like mask just from her messy mane of black hair.   
“Raven what are  _ you  _ doing here?” Summer asked surprised as she blocked another of her former teammates attacks.   
“Isn’t it obvious?” Raven replied dismissively as she tried to land another blow on Summer. “I want those powers of yours.”   
“That is not going to happen.” Summer shouted as she managed to barely evade Raven’s blow, trying her best to disengage and run from her former friend before the bandits caught up to them. 

As they continued to exchange blows, the Huntress began to notice how much her prior extermination mission had actually taken out of her as she had to draw on the powers of the Maiden just to keep up, her eyes now surrounded by silver flames.    
Freezing Raven’s feet in place, Summer tried her best to get away, but with a howl of rage, Raven activated the Dust in ehr weapon’s blade to send waves of fire after the Winter Maiden. Barely extinguishing the flames before they could impact her Aura, Summer began to tire out even more as Raven finally broke the ice and quickly caught up to Summer, a new blade attached to her weapon’s hilt. Thus their fight started up once again, with the Huntress now clearly on the back foot until a series of bullets hit the both of them, draining Raven’s Aura while they finally broke Summer’s.   
‘Sorry Yang, Ruby, Mom won’t be able to make dinner tonight’ Summer thought as she closed her eyes, just before she felt a blade pierce her chest.   
  


-x-

 

“That woman” Yang hissed under her breath as Ruby finished the story, once again just barely avoiding waking up their team. “I’ll swear I’m going to find her and then I will-”   
“Yang please.” Ruby says as she grabs a hold of her sister’s wrist. “Don’t lower yourself to her level.”

“Why, she just left me and dad on our own, and then she killed Mom.” Yang shouted, causing both Weiss and Blake to wake up.   
“If if you want we can start picking missions involving Bandits and face her  _ as a team _ . But please don’t just run of o your own.” The redhead pleaded with the blonde.   
“Fine, but if we don’T find her by the time I’m done with Beacon, I am going to look for her, whether you guys come along or not.”    
“O-okay, but let’s just go to bed for now okay?” Ruby asked, seeing the angry scowls on her teammates faces.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am back for now, although I don't think updates will come as fast as they did before


End file.
